EZFAQ 0.32 - ezmlm-idx and ezmlm FAQ

Fred Lindberg, lindberg@id.wustl.edu & Fred B. Ringel, fredr@rivertown.net

1. General Information

• 1.1 Acknowledgements
• 1.2 What is this document?
• 1.3 Terminology
• 1.4 What is the difference between ezmlm and ezmlm-idx?
• 1.5 Where can I get all of the ezmlm-related programs?
• 1.6 Where can I find documentation for ezmlm and patches?
• 1.7 Where do I send comments on this document?
• 1.8 How to experiment with new versions of ezmlm-idx.

2. Quick start

3. Overview of mailing list management and mailing list managers

4. Overview of ezmlm function

• 4.1 The basic setup.
• 4.2 Inventions in ezmlm.
• 4.3 The qmail delivery mechanism.
• 4.4 What the different programs do.
• 4.5 What the different files in the list directory do.
• 4.6 The paper path for posts.
• 4.7 The ezmlm path for moderation messages.
• 4.8 The ezmlm path for administrative messages.
• 4.9 The ezmlm path for bounces.
• 4.10 Messages to list-owner and list-digest-owner.
• 4.11 Structure of subscriber databases.
• 4.12 Local case in E-mail addresses.
• 4.13 Testing SENDER to allow posts only from list subscribers.
• 4.14 How cookies work.
• 4.15 How moderator E-mail addresses are stored.
• 4.16 How subscription moderation works.
• 4.17 How remote administration works.
• 4.18 How message moderation works.
• 4.19 How messages are stored in the archive.
• 4.20 How the message index works.
• 4.21 How threading works.
• 4.22 How digests work.
• 4.23 How ezmlm-tstdig works.
• 4.24 How sublists work.
• 4.25 How sublisting can be made transparent to the user.
• 4.26 How to service commands in the subject line.
• 4.27 How to support alternative command names.
• 4.28 How to add your own commands.
• 4.29 How remote administrators can retrieve a subscriber list
• 4.30 How remote administrators can search the subscription log
• 4.31 How text file editing works.
• 4.32 How subject line prefixes work.
• 4.33 How bounces are handled.
• 4.34 How the info and faq commands work.
• 4.35 How the global ezmlm list address works.
• 4.36 How ezmlm-cron works.
• 4.37 How ezmlm-make works.
• 4.38 What names can I use for my lists?
• 4.39 Lists in virtual domains
• 4.40 How do I make customization simple for me/my users?

5. ezmlm support for SQL databases.

• 5.1 Why use an SQL database with ezmlm?
• 5.2 Why not to use an SQL database with ezmlm.
• 5.3 Tables used for (My)SQL support.
• 5.4 How addresses are distributed among sublists.
• 5.5 How to set up a simple list with SQL support.
• 5.6 Manually manipulating the subscribers of a SQL-enabled list.
• 5.7 Converting to and from and SQL database.
• 5.8 Implementation of sublisting with SQL-enabled lists.
• 5.9 Interpreting the message log.
• 5.10 Optimizing MySQL for ezmlm.
• 5.11 Maintenance of the MySQL database.

6. Possible error conditions in ezmlm lists.

• 6.1 What do I do if ezmlm doesn't work?
• 6.2 How do I report ezmlm bugs?
• 6.3 Where do I send suggestions for ezmlm-idx improvements?
• 6.4 Using ezmlm-test to check the ezmlm(-idx) programs.
• 6.5 Using ezmlm-check to find setup errors.
• 6.6 Posts are rejected: Sorry, no mailbox here by that name (#5.1.1).
• 6.7 Post are not sent to subscribers.
• 6.8 ezmlm-make fails: usage: ezmlm-make ...
• 6.9 ezmlm-make fails: Unable to create ...
• 6.10 ezmlm-make fails: ... ezmlmrc does not exist
• 6.11 Index/get/thread requests fail quietly or with errors from ezmlm-manage.
• 6.12 Digest triggering requests fail.
• 6.13 Remote administration (un)subscribe confirm requests go to the user, not the moderator.
• 6.14 (Un)subscribers does not receive a (un)subscribe acknowledgement
• 6.15 Messages posted to a moderated list are sent out without moderation.
• 6.16 Messages posted to a moderated list do not result in moderation requests.
• 6.17 Moderation request replies do not result in the appropriate action.
• 6.18 Moderator comments with moderation request replies are not added to the post/sent to the poster.
• 6.19 Some headers are missing from messages in the digest.
• 6.20 Some Received: headers are missing from messages.
• 6.21 My Mutt users cannot thread their digest messages.
• 6.22 Posts fail: Message already has Mailing-List (#5.7.2).
• 6.23 The last line of a DIR/text/ file is ignored.
• 6.24 No CONFIRM requests are sent to moderators.
• 6.25 Deliveries fail ``temporary qmail-queue error''
• 6.26 How to deal with corrupted subscriber lists
• 6.27 Vacation program replies are treated as bounces by ezmlm.
• 6.28 Digests do not come at regular hours.
• 6.29 Preventing loops from misconfigured subscriber addresses.
• 6.30 A user can subscribe and receives warning and probe messages, but no messages from the list.

7. Customizing ezmlm-make operation via ezmlmrc

• 7.1 Using ezmlm-make to edit existing lists.
• 7.2 What is ezmlmrc?
• 7.3 Changing defaults for DIR/text/ files.
• 7.4 Changing default moderator directories.
• 7.5 Adapting ezmlm-make for virtual domains.
• 7.6 Setting up ezmlm-make for special situations.

8. Restricting message posting to the list.

• 8.1 Requiring the list address in To:/Cc: headers.
• 8.2 Rejecting messages sent from other mailing lists.
• 8.3 Restricting posts based on the Subject line.
• 8.4 Restricting the size of posts.
• 8.5 Restricting posts based on MIME content-type.
• 8.6 Restricting posts to list subscribers.
• 8.7 Restricting posts to an arbitrary set of E-mail addresses (higher security option).
• 8.8 Completely restricting posts.
• 8.9 A general solution to restricting posts based on SENDER.

9. Customizing outgoing messages.

• 9.1 Adding a trailer to outgoing messages.
• 9.2 Adding a subject prefix to outgoing messages.
• 9.3 Adding a header to outgoing messages.
• 9.4 Adding a message number header.
• 9.5 Removing headers from outgoing messages.
• 9.6 Removing MIME parts from messages.
• 9.7 Limiting ``Received:'' headers in outgoing messages.
• 9.8 Setting ``Reply-To: list@host''.
• 9.9 Configuring the list so posts are not copied to the original sender.
• 9.10 Customizing ezmlm notification messages.
• 9.11 Specifying character set and content-transfer-encoding for outgoing ezmlm messages.

10. Customizing archive retrieval.

• 10.1 Specifying the format for retrieved messages.
• 10.2 Specifying the default format for digests and archive retrieval.
• 10.3 Limiting the number of messages per -get/-index request.

11. Restricting archive retrieval.

• 11.1 Restricting archive access to subscribers.
• 11.2 Restricting available archive retrieval commands.
• 11.3 Restricting archive retrieval to moderators.
• 11.4 Allowing archive retrieval from a non-public list.

12. Customizing digests.

• 12.1 Setting up a digest list.
• 12.2 Generating daily digests.
• 12.3 Generating the first digest.
• 12.4 Adding standard administrative information to digests.
• 12.5 Controlling the digest format.
• 12.6 Customizing bounce handling.

13. Remote administration.

• 13.1 How can I remotely add moderators, subscriber aliases, etc?
• 13.2 Moderating posts from a secondary account.
• 13.3 Moderating subscription from a secondary account.
• 13.4 Automatically approving posts or subscriptions.
• 13.5 Allowing remote administrators to get a subscriber list.
• 13.6 Allowing remote administrators to retrieve or search a subscription log.
• 13.7 Allowing users to get a subscriber list.
• 13.8 Changing the timeout for messages in the moderation queue.
• 13.9 Finding out how many messages are waiting for moderation.
• 13.10 Using the same moderators for multiple lists.
• 13.11 Using different moderators for message and subscription moderation.
• 13.12 Setting up moderated lists with the list owner as
• 13.13 Customizing ezmlm administrative messages.
• 13.14 Manually approving a message awaiting moderation.
• 13.15 Manually rejecting a message awaiting moderation.

14. Sublists.

• 14.1 Sublists of ezmlm lists.
• 14.2 Sublists of non-ezmlm lists.
• 14.3 How to set up a cluster of list and sublists with standard databases.
• 14.4 Setting up an ezmlm list ``cluster'' of main list and sublists using a central SQL server.

15. Migration to Ezmlm from other Mailing List Managers.

• 15.1 Basic Concepts.
• 15.2 Setting up ezmlm to respond to host-centric commands.
• 15.3 Commands of other mailinglist managers recognized by ezmlm.

16. Optimizing list performance.

• 16.1 Crond-generated digests for better performance.
• 16.2 Optimizing execution of ezmlm-warn(1).
• 16.3 Decreasing ezmlm-warn time out to increase performance.
• 16.4 Use ezmlm without ezmlm-idx for maximum performance.
• 16.5 Not archiving to maximize performance.
• 16.6 Sublists to maximize performance.

17. Miscellaneous.

• 17.1 How do I quickly change the properties of my list?
• 17.2 Open archived list with daily digests.
• 17.3 Variations in moderation
• 17.4 Lists that allow remote admin, but not user initiated subscription or archive retrieval.
• 17.5 Lists that allow remote admin, user archive retrieval, but not user-initiated subscription.
• 17.6 Lists that restrict archive retrieval to subscribers.
• 17.7 Lists that do not allow archive retrieval at all.
• 17.8 Lists that do not allow archive retrieval and do not allow digest triggering per mail.
• 17.9 Lists that allow archive retrieval only to moderators, but allow user-initiated subscription.
• 17.10 Lists that do not require user confirmation for (un)subscription.
• 17.11 Announcement lists for a small set of trusted posters
• 17.12 Announcement lists allowing moderated posts from anyone.
• 17.13 Announcement lists with less security and more convenience.

18. Ezmlm-idx compile time options.

• 18.1 Location of binaries.
• 18.2 Location of man pages.
• 18.3 Base directory of qmail-installation.
• 18.4 Short header texts, etc.
• 18.5 Arbitrary limits.
• 18.6 Command names.
• 18.7 Error messages.
• 18.8 Paths and other odd configuration items.

19. Multiple language support.

• 19.1 Command names.
• 19.2 Text files.
• 19.3 Multi-byte character code support.

20. Subscriber notification of moderation events.

• 20.1 General opinions.
• 20.2 Users should know that the list is subscription moderated.
• 20.3 Subscribers should know that posts are moderated.
• 20.4 Senders of posts should be notified of rejections.

21. Ezmlm-idx security.

• 21.1 General assumptions.
• 21.2 SENDER manipulation.
• 21.3 ezmlm cookies.
• 21.4 Lists without remote admin/subscription moderation.
• 21.5 Message moderation.
• 21.6 Subscription moderation.
• 21.7 Remote administration.
• 21.8 Remote editing of ezmlm text files.
• 21.9 Digest generation and archive retrieval.
• 21.10 Convenience for security: the ezmlm-manage ``-S'' and ``-U'' switches.
• 21.11 Denial of service.
• 21.12 Moderator anonymity.
• 21.13 Confidentiality of subscriber E-mail addresses.
• 21.14 Help message for moderators.
• 21.15 Sublists.
• 21.16 SQL databases.
• 21.17 Reporting security problems.