


APPROVE(1)               USER COMMANDS                 APPROVE(1)



NAME
     approve - approve a Majordomo request

SYNOPSIS
     approve [filename]

DESCRIPTION
     approve automates  the  task  of  replying  to  an  approval
     request  from  Majordomo.   Input is the e-mail message con-
     taining Majordomo's request, read  from  filename,  or  read
     from standard input if no filename is specified.

     approve currently understands two types of  requests;  those
     requesting  subscription  to  a closed list, and those which
     bounced due to a lack of permission to post to a  moderated,
     or  private,  mailing  list.   approve reads the body of the
     message from Majordomo to determine the appropriate  action.
     Assuming  a  message  containing a subscription request like
     the following:

        From: Majordomo@This.COM
        To: this-list-approval@This.COM

        Joe User <User@Fubar.COM> requests you approve  the  fol-
        lowing:

           subscribe this-list Joe User <User@Fubar.COM>

        If you approve, send a line  such  as  the  following  to
        Majordomo@This.COM:

           approve   PASSWD   subscribe   this-list   Joe    User
           <User@Fubar.COM>

     then running approve on the message by saving it in a  file,
     e.g.,

        approve /tmp/request

     or

        approve < /tmp/request

     will result in the following reply to Majordomo:

        To: Majordomo@This.COM

        approve PASSWD subscribe  this-list  User@Fubar.COM  (Joe
        User)

     If approve is on the user's path, then it's possible to exe-
     cute  it  via  a shell escape, piping the current message to



Sun Release 4.1           Last change:                          1






APPROVE(1)               USER COMMANDS                 APPROVE(1)



     approve from a mail program, e.g.,

        !approve

     would approve the current message in /usr/ucb/Mail.

     If, in the latter case, the "Subject:" line of  the  request
     from  Majordomo is "BOUNCE <list>: <reason>", the message is
     treated as a posting rejected by resend for some reason, and
     is reformatted with appropriate "Approved:" headers to cause
     it to succeed, and then it is resubmitted to  Majordomo  for
     posting.   This provides an easy mechanism for the moderator
     of a mailing list to approve postings to the list.

CONFIGURATION
     approve assumes that the approve password for each  list  is
     the  same  as the approval password used by resend, and that
     this password is stored in a file called .majordomo  in  the
     user's home directory.  The file has the following format:

          this-list    passwd1   Majordomo@This.COM
          other-list   passwd2   Majordomo@Other.GOV

     The first column specifies the name of the mailing list, the
     second  column  specifies  the list-owner's password for the
     given list,  and  the  third  column  specifies  the  e-mail
     address  of  the associated Majordomo server.  It is assumed
     that the value in the  third  column  is  an  Internet-style
     "something@somewhere"  address, and that postings for "List"
     should be sent to "List@somewhere".  Since  this  file  only
     needs  to be read by the user, it should be mode 600 to pro-
     tect the passwords.

FILES
     ~/.majordomo
     /usr/local/lib/mail/majordomo/

SEE ALSO
     majordomo(8),perl(1),resend(1).

BUGS
     There is no direct support for MH(1), so MH users will  have
     to run approve directly on the message file in their inbox.

     The .majordomo file requires an at-sign, "@", in the address
     of  the  Majordomo  server, even if it colocated on the same
     system as the list-owner.

AUTHORS
     Majordomo and most of the ancillary perl code was written by
     Brent  Chapman,  <brent@GreatCircle.COM>.  This man page was
     written by Jim Duncan, <jim@math.psu.edu>.



Sun Release 4.1           Last change:                          2



