majordomo

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.

  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

  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.

  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>.