


MAJORDOMO(8)          MAINTENANCE COMMANDS           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.

     help Retrieve an informational message, a brief synopsis  of
          the user portion of this manual page.




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     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  pass-
          word  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 Major-
          domo 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



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          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  con-
          fig file (incorrect value...), the config file will not
          be accepted and the error message identifying the prob-
          lem  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  major-
          domo  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  them-
     selves.   A  subscription  request  sent  to Majordomo for a
     closed list is forwarded to the owner of the list for appro-
     val.   If a user tries to subscribe an address which is dif-
     ferent 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 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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