[Mailman-Users] Bug: couldn't subscribe to dev list by simplyreplying

Mark Sapiro mark at msapiro.net
Mon Feb 1 17:00:12 CET 2010


Geoff Shang wrote:
>
>I just tried again to subscribe to the developers list and discovered that 
>you couldn't confirm your subscription just by replying.
>
>The message text implies that the confirmation key should be in the 
>subject, but the confirmation key was in the From address of the 
>confirmation message (see below).  Replying simply send me a message 
>telling me that the subject line was being ignored.  It seems the confirm 
>code was also ignored.
>
>Not sure how it's meant to work but it's the first time I've had to resort 
>to clicking on the URL.


What is supposed to happen is you reply; your MUA sends a reply to

mailman-developers-confirm+519716b18b6d4ddef39fd87d0e5abdf8c5ced755 at python.org

This is received and posted to the command queue where it is processed
by CommandRunner which parses the token from the To: address and
invokes cmd_confirm to do the confirmation.

There are two ways this works in general. If the site's
VERP_CONFIRMATIONS setting is No (the default) the confirmation is
From: listname-request at ... with Subject: confirm <token>, and the
reply is to the listname-request at ... address with the confirm command
possibly preceded by Re: in the Subject:. This works.

If the site's VERP_CONFIRMATIONS setting is Yes as it is at python.org,
the confirmation is From: listname-confirm+<token>@... with Subject:
Your confirmation is required to join the listname mailing list, and
the reply is to listname-confirm+<token>@... and this should work too.

If you received a reply that your message Subject was ignored, either
the To: address didn't match VERP_CONFIRM_REGEXP or the reply wasn't
sent to the -confirm address, or the site's MTA doesn't correctly
deliver mail addressed to listname-confirm+<token>@... . I don't think
it's the third alternative in this case.

If the above doesn't explain what went wrong, post the message you
received in reply to your reply.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan



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