MAJORDOMO(8) MAJORDOMO(8)
NAME
Majordomo - manage multiple mailing lists
SYNOPSIS
Majordomo
DESCRIPTION
Majordomo is a perl script which automates the management of Internet
mailing lists. It is executed via electronic mail; users send e-mail
to Majordomo with instructions in the body of the message, and the
perl script performs the requested actions and responds with the
results. Any text in the "Subject:" line is ignored.
COMMANDS
Majordomo understands the following commands (arguments in "[]" are
optional):
subscribe list [address]
Subscribe yourself (or address if specified) to the named list.
unsubscribe list [address]
Unsubscribe yourself (or address if specified) from the named list.
get list file
Get the file related to list.
index list
Return an index of the files you can get associated with list.
which [address]
Find out to which lists you (or address if specified) are subscribed.
who list
Find out who is on the named list.
info list
Retrieve the general introductory information for the named list.
lists
Show the lists served by this Majordomo server. It will also show a 50
character list description if one has been provided.
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MAJORDOMO(8) MAJORDOMO(8)
help
Retrieve an informational message, a brief synopsis of the user
portion of this manual page.
end
Stop processing commands (useful if your mailer adds a signature).
A command may be split across multiple lines if all of the lines in
the command except the last end with a backslash "\".
In addition, the owner of the list can issue the following commands:
approve password subscribe list address
Instruct Majordomo to add address to list. The password is required
to authenticate the list owner. This is very weak authentication as
the password is transmitted in the clear in an e-mail message. No
claims are made that it will provide anything other than rudimentary
protection against abuse of the Majordomo server.
approve password unsubscribe list address
Instruct Majordomo to delete address from list. The password is
required to authenticate the list owner. See the comments above
regarding the password.
newinfo list password
Update the informational message for list with the text which follows
on subsequent lines. No formatting of the message occurs, so the list
owner should be careful to constrain the message to eighty columns.
Majordomo will include everything up to the string EOF or to the end
of the mail message, whichever comes first. This is useful in case
the owner wants to verify the new message immediately, e.g.,
To: majordomo
newinfo list password
This is new information for the "list" list.
EOF
info list
This will simultaneously update the information for the list, and
then retrieve it for verification. Note that blank lines are
preserved in the message.
passwd list old-password new-password
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MAJORDOMO(8) MAJORDOMO(8)
Replace the password for list with new-password.
config list password
retrieve a self-documenting configuration file for the list <list>.
The password can be the password contained in the file
<listname>.passwd or the admin_password in the configuration file.
newconfig list password
Validates and installs a new configuration file. The config file
includes everything up to the string EOF or to the end of the mail
message, whichever comes first. The config file is expected to be a
complete config file as returned by the "config" command. Incremental
changing of the config file is not yet supported. As soon as the
config file is validated and installed its settings are available for
use. This is useful to remember if you have multiple commands in your
mail message since they will be subject to the settings of the new
config file. If there is an error in the config file (incorrect
value...), the config file will not be accepted and the error message
identifying the problem line(s) will be returned to the sender. Note
that only the errors are returned to the sender not the entire config
file.
writeconfig list password
Write a new config in standard form. All of the config file
documentation is optional. Only the keywords and values are necessary.
If a config file, stripped of all comments is installed using
newconfig, that is what is returned by config. Writeconfig forces a
rewrite of the config file with all comments and default values in
place. It is useful to use after an upgrade of majordomo since it will
add the new keywords for people to change. It also updates the
documentation in the file if that has changed.
mkdigest digest-list-name password
This will force a digest for the specified list to be created. It is
most useful if you don't have an account on the machine that handles
the digest for your list.
CONFIGURATION
(Note that this section has not been updated to majordomo version
1.90). Majordomo supports open and closed lists. An open list is one
to which anyone can subscribe themselves. A subscription request sent
to Majordomo for a closed list is forwarded to the owner of the list
for approval. If a user tries to subscribe an address which is
different from their own (for example, a local list exploder),
Majordomo will forward the request to the list owner for approval,
regardless of the open or closed status of the list.
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MAJORDOMO(8) MAJORDOMO(8)
Majordomo depends on the existence of certain system mail aliases.
The first three are for running the perl script on incoming e-mail and
specifying the responsible person in charge of the server:
majordomo: "|/usr/local/mail/majordomo/wrapper majordomo"
majordomo-owner: brent
owner-majordomo: brent
These next few aliases are for a list called "sample":
sample: :include:/usr/local/mail/lists/sample
owner-sample: sample-owner
sample-request: "|/usr/local/mail/majordomo/wrapper request-answer
sample"
owner-sample-request: sample-owner
sample-owner: brent
sample-approval: brent
FILES
/etc/majordomo.cf
/usr/local/lib/mail/majordomo/
BUGS
This man page has not been fully updated to conform to majordomo 1.90.
AUTHORS
Majordomo and most of the ancillary perl code was written by Brent
Chapman, <brent@GreatCircle.COM>. The latest version of the code is
available by anonymous FTP from FTP.GreatCircle.COM, in directory
pub/majordomo. This man page was written by Jim Duncan,
<jim@math.psu.edu>. Minimal update of the man page by John Rouillard
<rouilj@cs.umb.edu>.
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