What is Majordomo?
Majordomo is a set of programs written in Perl that automate operation of
multiple mailing lists. Majordomo automatically handles routine requests to
subscribe or unsubscribe; it also has "closed lists" that route all subscription
requests to a "list owner" for approval. It also supports "moderated lists" that
send all messages to the list owner for approval before they're sent to
subscribers. Once the list is set up, it can be controlled by electronic mail,
so the list owner need not be on the machine where Majordomo is running. It can
also maintain simple archives and deliver them via e-mail.
One of Majordomo's real strengths is its relative simplicity. You can figure
it out in a few hours. ListProcessor, another major mailing list management
system, requires much longer--so much so that we couldn't cover it effectively
in a book of this size. We've left it for another book. But if you intend to
manage huge lists, ListProcessor provides lots of useful features that can make
it well worth the effort. We use ListProcessor for our company mailing lists.
Chapter 1 has a short comparison of Majordomo and ListProcessor.
A good way to learn more about Majordomo is by subscribing to the
majordomo-users mailing list. Send a subscription request to
majordomo@greatcircle.com--see "A User's View of Majordomo",
below, for instructions. (Another list on the same host, majordomo-announce,
announces new versions of Majordomo as well as bug fixes. The majordomo-workers
list is for people who develop Majordomo.)
Majordomo Overview
Before we dip into the intricacies of setting up and running Majordomo
mailing lists, it will be helpful to get an overview of how it works from the
user's perspective, how the list owner manages a list, and how the various
programs that make up the Majordomo package work together.
A User's View of Majordomo
First here's a user's guide to the Majordomo package. (Actually, this is an
introduction to majordomo, the program which provides all of these functions.)
It explains subscription, unsubscription, and all the other Majordomo commands
available to users. It also includes some notes for the person running the list
about who has permission to use some commands. (The section "List Server
Software" in Chapter 1 shows how users interact with a list server.)
A user can subscribe to a list, or ask about his or other users'
subscriptions, by sending mail to the majordomo server, usually
majordomo@hostname. Put the commands in the body of the mail message (not on the
"Subject:" header component). Other than white space, the commands must be the
first text in the message body; in other words, don't begin with "Dear
Majordomo."
In the sections below, items in brackets ([]) are optional. If you include
the optional item, don't type the brackets.
help
Sends one-line summaries of majordomo commands. The first line of output
tells you which version of Majordomo the server is running.
info
list Sends an introduction to the list "list".
lists
Shows the lists served by this majordomo server.
subscribe list [address]
This command subscribes a user to the named "list". Unless the user includes
the optional "address", Majordomo will use the e-mail address in the mail
message header ("Reply-to:", if any, otherwise "From:") to send mail to the
user.
unsubscribe list [address]
This unsubscribes the user (or "address") from "list".
which [address]
Tells the lists to which the user (or "address") is subscribed.
who list
Lists the subscribers of "list".
get list filename
Mails a file named "filename" from the "list" archive. If the list is
private, only members can run this command. Only for Majordomo versions 1.54 and
later.
end
Stops reading the message. This is useful for users whose mailer adds text
(like a signature) to the end of a message.
A line that starts with a dash (-) is also treated as an "end" command by
newer versions of Majordomo. Because many peoples' mail message signatures start
with some dashes, this avoids error messages.
Majordomo for List Owners
The list owner is the person (or persons) who will run day-to-day operations
of a mailing list by responding to mail messages from Majordomo. Each mailing
list operated by Majordomo can have its own list owners.
Majordomo has "open" and "closed" lists. A subscriber to an open list will be
approved automatically unless they specify an "address" different from the one
in their e-mail header. All subscriptions to closed lists will be sent to the
list owner for approval.
If you'd like a list with the absolute minimum of maintenance (but also a
minimum of security), you could create an "auto" list. All subscription or
unsubscription requests will be honored without any input from the list owner.
For example, anyone could unsubscribe anyone else.
Majordomo also has "public" and "private" lists. In a public list,
subscribers have access to information about other subscribers through the "who"
and "which" commands; in a private list, they don't. When a list is private,
only subscribers can use the archive commands "index" and "get".
The owner can potentially receive four types of messages: requests to approve
subscriptions (or unsubscriptions), requests to approve messages to the list,
notifications of successful subscriptions or unsubscriptions, and bounces
(messages sent to the list that weren't delivered). Which of these the owner
receives, and how many, depends on the setup of the list (and of course, how
many members the list has). Majordomo provides the "approve" script to help
handle approval of subscriptions and messages, and "bounce" to help handle
bounces.
Majordomo for Administrators
The administrator in this context is the person who creates new lists, or
changes the settings (moderated or not, private or public, etc.) of existing
lists. Unlike a list owner, the administrator needs to have direct access to the
system where Majordomo is running. In many cases, the list owner and the
administrator are the same person, but they don't need to be.
This file is the
chapter about Majordomo from the Nutshell Handbook "Managing
Internet Information Services," written by Jerry Peek. The chapter is (c)
Copyright 1994 by O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc., and was included in the Majordomo distribution by
permission of the publisher.
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