Xref: utzoo comp.sources.wanted:5700 comp.mail.misc:1438
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu!karl
From: karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Need mailing list software/advice
Message-ID: 
Date: 2 Dec 88 17:35:08 GMT
References: <1328@ksuvax1.cis.ksu.edu>
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: OSU
Lines: 57
In-reply-to: tar@ksuvax1.cis.ksu.edu's message of 2 Dec 88 13:40:10 GMT

tar@ksuvax1.cis.ksu.edu (Tim Ramsey) writes:
   I've just volunteered myself to administer a mailing list.

Lucky you.  :-)

   I need
   software to handle the task of keeping control of the list.

The following stuff is my generic mailing list administration scheme,
which is used in the care and feeding of 9 mailing lists based here.

In /usr/lib/aliases, you need the set of aliases:

listname-request:       YourUserName
listname:               "|/u/YourUserName/listname/sendscript"
owner-listname:         listname-request
listname-out:           :include:/u/YourUserName/listname/aliases
owner-listname-out:     listname-request

Then the sendscript which I use is:

#!/bin/sh
sed -e '/^Reply-To:/d' -e '/^From /d' | \
	(echo Reply-To: listname@cis.ohio-state.edu; \
	 echo Errors-To: listname-request@cis.ohio-state.edu; \
	 echo Precedence: bulk; cat -) | \
	/usr/lib/sendmail -f listname-request@cis.ohio-state.edu \
	-F 'Listname Mailing List' listname-out

Maintenance of the list's aliases file is up to the list maintainer.
This keeps its hassles away from the machine's administrator.  Note
the inclusion of an Errors-To:, thus foisting all problems back on the
list maintainer as well.  The "Precedence: bulk" is used (as well as
"-f listname-request") to keep vacation(1) silent; see vacation's man
page.

Since all mail goes through the sendscript, it is possible to make it
arbitrarily complex.  I have one modified incarnation of the
sendscript which provides what I refer to as a "fire extinguisher,"
which allows me to exclude certain addresses from being able to post
to the list.  (It was only needed once, and...well...temporarily, at
that.)

You may or may not want to force the new Reply-To: header; but there
are (primarily SysV) mail user agents out there that insist on trying
to send replies to the wrong place, and the presence of an explicit
Reply-To: helps in some (not all) of these cases.

Include yourself as the first entry in the aliases file for the list;
you will thus get first delivery, and can be aware of potential
problems which might arise soonest.

   Thanks in advance,

Y'welcome.

--Karl