IperWeb MANUAL

CHAPTER THREE - MAJORDOMO

Majordomo: customized version

3.1) HOW DO I GET STARTED?

3.2) ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS

3.3) HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT MAJORDOMO?

3.1) HOW DO I GET STARTED?

3.1.1) General info

In general, messages should be sent in the body of the message, not in the subject. But this customized listserver handles both ways.

3.1.2) Creating a new list

To create a new list, send the name of your new list to support@iperweb.com. Make sure it has a different name than your userid.

For the purposes of this manual, suppose you gave your list the wonderfully inventive name your-list.

3.1.3) Subscribing

To subscribe, send the message

subscribe your-list

to majordomo@yourdomain.com or to majordomo@yourdomain.com. All further references to majordomo@yourdomain.com can be replaced by majordomo@yourdomain.com if you wish.

3.1.4) Unsubscribing

To unsubscribe, send the message

unsubscribe your-list

to majordomo@yourdomain.com.

3.1.5) Posting

Messages sent to your-list@yourdomain.com will be posted to the entire list. Of course, we can also arrange for your-list@your-domain to work as well.

3.1.6) Master subscribing

approve pswd subscribe your-list new-subscriber@somewhere.com

This will subscribe yourself to the list or anyone else you wished. Pswd is your password. Try this out since we haven't yet subscribed you to your own list.

3.1.7) Master unsubscribing

approve pswd unsubscribe your-list former-subscriber@somewhere.com

This unsubscribes the person whose e-mail address is given.

3.1.8) Creating digests

To create digests, ask us to activate the digest feature for your list.

How do I control how often they are created?

You could use cron to create periodic digest with a command like the following:

echo mkdigest [digest-name] [digest-password] | mail majordomo@...

This will force a digest to be created. Or you can set the max size in the digest list config file down low, and force automatic generation.

This would mean that you would be changing the text:

maxlength = 40000

in the list configuration for the digest. (Send

config your-list pswd

to majordomo to get the configuration which you can edit and send back. This is the same procedure as mentioned in 3.2.5.)

You can combine the two methods, for example to send out at least one digest per day but more if that one would be over a certain size.

3.2) ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS

3.2.1) How do I change my info message?

Send to majordomo:

newinfo your-list-name pswd Blah, blah, blah.

This will add a welcome to the message everyone sees when they subscribe. It will also be used if a customer requests info on a list. Note the blank line between welcome and Blah, blah, blah. Also note that you can not include any other commands with this command. Of course, the info message can be many lines.

3.2.2) How do I change my password?

passwd your-list-name old-password new-password

Will change your master password from the old-password to the new-password.

3.2.3) How do I get a list of the subscribers?

approve pswd who your-list-name

3.2.4) How do I post a message to my moderated list?

Posting a message with the following text at the beginning will work.

Approved: passwd
From: ufo@science.org (The UFO Project)
To: ufo-l@science.org
Subject: UFO Oracle - Project Bluebook

Message begins here. (Note the blank space -- the first blank line in the message.)

3.2.5) How do I change the reply-to field?

Send the command config your-list-name pswd to get a copy of your self-documenting configuration file.

You will find the area that contains the reply-to field.

Update this field and then send the command newconfigyour-list-name pswd followed by your new configuration file.

3.3) HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT MAJORDOMO?

3.3.1) Special features

Even with this quite simple interface, people will still screw up. We have modified this listserver so that it can handle SUBSCRIBE your-list-name E-MAIL ADDRESS as well and it can accept commands in either the subject area or body of the message. We wouldn't recommend telling subscribers about these extra features, but they reduce the amount of screwups you have to deal with.

If you are unhappy with this standard format in any way or would like the listserver's input or output features modified in any way, let us know.

3.3.2) General help file

Sending the command HELP to majordomo@yourdomain.com will get you a general help file. You can also type man majordomo at the shell prompt to get very detailed information about this listserver.

This page maintained by IperWeb.

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