[Mailman-Users] Strange E-mail Message About List Description

[Barry Finkel]

I wrote last Friday:

> I created a new list today at 13:42 (Mailman 2.1.14), and the
> "Description" field contained a "+" character, per the
> customer's request.  At 14:00 I received an e-mail from
>
>      From: root at lists.anl.gov
>      Subject: + in description for LISTNAME
>
> I cannot find anywhere in the source where this mail is
> generated, and I do not know why Mailman objects to a
> "+" character in the "Description" field.  There also is
> a "+" character in the "Info" field, but there is no complaint
> about that.  What generated the e-mail message, and what is
> the problem with a "+" character in the "Description" field?
> Thanks.

I found the problem.  We do not like the Mailman "home" page,
as it lists all of the advertised lists in alphabetical order.
We have revised the page to list the lists by category.
In each list I have a category string appended to the
description field.

I take the Mailman-generated "home" page, extract the list
names, info strings, and category strings, and I generate
an XML file.  This is then used to produce the new "home"
page.  A "+" character in an "info=" string will cause
confusion in the XML file, which contains its own "+"
characters.  My awk script was producing the message, and
the message from the awk script did not give the source.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry S. Finkel Computing and Information Systems Division
Argonne National Laboratory          Phone:    +1 (630)
252-7277 9700 South Cass Avenue               Facsimile:+1
(630) 252-4601 Building 240, Room 5.B.8
Internet: BSFinkel at anl.gov Argonne, IL
60439-4828             IBMMAIL:  I1004994