SWARPAnet is changing its mailing list software from majordomo to mailman. This means that all mailing lists on SWARPAnet domains (infersys.com, keyfitz.org, swil.org, etc) will become mailman lists. The reason for this change is simple: mailing list spam is a huge problem, both for the subscribers and for the list admins, and mailman has better tools for handling list spam in reasonable ways.
The primary interface mailman provides to each mailing list
is a web page. For the list listname@example.com,
this page is located at:
https://www.example.com/mailman/listinfo/listname
In many ways, the web interface is the most intuitive way to
manage a list, especially if you are a list administrator and
want to perform complex list-management tasks. However, mailman
also has an e-mail interface which provides some commonly-used
commands to list subscribers.
This document is a brief guide to how to do perform simple
list tasks via e-mail in the mailman world, and is designed for
people who are used to interacting with lists the majordomo
way. This document contains no further information about how
to use the mailman web interface, since that is somewhat
self-explanatory and is widely documented elsewhere. In this
guide, we use example.com as the example domain, and assume
that the list you are interested in is called
listname@example.com. It should be clear how to
substitute the name of a real domain.
In particular, this document contains:
There are two important changes here. First, you need to know
what address to use in order to reach the mailing list software.
In the majordomo world, requests were sent to
majordomo@example.com. In the mailman world,
requests go to an address specific to the list in question.
Normally, this address will be:
listname-request@example.com
If you forget the address to use, look at the full headers
of any message sent to the list. Mailman messages contain a
block of headers with names starting with "List-",
which give meta-information. For instance:
List-Id: listname.example.com
List-Unsubscribe: <https://www.example.com/mailman/listinfo/listname>,
<mailto:listname-request@example.com?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://www.example.com/pipermail/listname>
List-Post: <mailto:listname@example.com>
List-Help: <mailto:listname-request@example.com?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://www.example.com/mailman/listinfo/listname>,
<mailto:listname-request@example.com?subject=subscribe>
In particular, the List-Help entry tells you the
general address for list requests, and its name is
listname-request@example.com, as above.
The second big change in sending e-mail to mailman is where to place the command. Unlike majordomo (which ignores the subject line entirely) mailman uses the subject line to figure out what command you want to run. So you would send a message with:
Subject: command
to run command, or possibly:
Subject: command argument
if the command takes an argument.
One good command to try is help, which requires
no arguments and which gives you the list of commands you can
send to mailman via e-mail, including all the ones i describe
on this page.
Unlike majordomo, mailman has a password associated with each subscriber to a list. This password is mostly a mild anti-abuse mechanism --- it is not sent or stored securely, so do not use an important password here.
However, this means that, if you want information from a mailing list you're on, you need to know your password. (This is true for both the e-mail interface and the web interface.) If you forget it, go to the web interface and have it mailed to you. Note that the initial message mailman sends you when you successfully subscribe to a list contains your password, so, if you keep that message around, you will be able to look up the password whenever you want.
Once you have the password, how to use it depends on the command. However, the most common case is that the command will take the password as an argument on the subject line:
Subject: command password
or, if there are other arguments,
Subject: command password argument
In order to subscribe to a list, send mail to the general help
address using the subscribe command:
To: listname-request@example.com
Subject: subscribe
If you want to pick your password, you can specify it on the
command line:
To: listname-request@example.com
Subject: subscribe mykickassl1stpassw0rd
(If you do not specify a password, mailman will randomly generate
one for you.) If you want to subscribe using an address other
than the one from which you are sending your message, specify
that using address=
From: the-real-me@example.com
To: listname-request@example.com
Subject: subscribe optionalpassword address=my-fake-list-address@example.com
In order to unsubscribe from a list, send mail to the general
help address using the unsubscribe command:
To: listname-request@example.com
Subject: unsubscribe
As in the subscribe case above, you can specify
your password and/or your address. In this case, if you do not
provide a password, mailman will send a confirmation e-mail to
the address it is trying to unsubscribe.
In order to find out who is on a list via e-mail, use the
who command. This command requires a password:
To: listname-request@example.com
Subject: who mykickassl1stpassw0rd
If you're writing from an address other than the one which is
subscribed to the list, you can use the address=
syntax described in the subscribe section to tell
mailman which list user you are.
We hope this helps. Much of this information is available elsewhere in one form or another, but this page is specific to SWARPAnet, so, if it is unclear, you can write us and ask. Happy mailing list use!
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Last updated on 2005-06-23 (Thu) at 23:28 EDT