Majordomo.8

       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.   If list is ``*'' (an asterisk), unsubscribe
       from all lists on this Majordomo server.

       auth special-word subscribe list address

       If the list subscribe policy  setting  includes  +confirm,
       Majordomo  will ask for confirmation before a subscription
       is approved.  The conformation request will show the  spe-
       cial-word to send with auth .

       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.

       Retrieve  the  general  introductory  information  for the
       named list.

       intro list

       Retrieve the introductory message sent  to  new  users  of
       list.  Non-subscribers may not be able to retrieve this.

       lists

       Show  the  lists  served by this Majordomo server. It will
       also show a 50 character list description if one has  been
       provided.

       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 pass-
       word 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
       the mail message, whichever comes first.  This  is  useful
       in  case the owner wants to verify the new message immedi-
       ately, 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.

       newintro list password

       Similar to newinfo , but updates the (optional)  introduc-
       tory  message  sent  to new list subscribers.  passwd list
       old-password new-password

       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 con-
       fig 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 con-
       fig  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
       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 [ outgoing-address ] password

       This will force a digest for the specified list to be cre-
       ated.  It  is  most useful if you don't have an account on
       the machine that handles the digest for  your  list.   The
       optional   outgoing-address   will  override  the  default
       address, listname-outgoing, for distributing the  digests;
       this is usually done for security.

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 them-
       selves.  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 sta-
       tus of the list.

       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: <the majordomo address here>
       majordomo-owner: brent
       owner-majordomo: brent

       These next few aliases are for a list called "sample":

       sample: <the list address>
       owner-sample: sample-owner
       sample-request:       <the address here>
       owner-sample-request: sample-owner
       sample-owner: brent
       sample-approval: brent

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>. Mini-
       mal  update  of   the   man   page   by   John   Rouillard
       <rouilj@cs.umb.edu>.

       Minor sanity hacks by Tim Woodcock <support@baremetal.com>
       for specific BareMetal.com usage.