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Majordomo

  1. Installation
  2. Documentation
  3. Configuration
  4. Setting up a Moderated List
  5. Majordomo Interfaces
  6. Alternatives to Majordomo

Installation

Majordomo is a Perl program written by Brent Chapman of Great Circle Associates to handle routine administration of Internet mailing lists.

To install Majordomo, telnet to your Virtual Server and do the following:

  1. Untar the Majordomo tar file located in the /usr/local/contrib area. 
      % cd    (this will put you in your home directory)
  % tar -xvf /usr/local/contrib/majordomo.tar
  2. Change the permission on the directories usr, usr/local, usr/local/majordomo and usr/local/majordomo/Lists to 755: 
      % chmod 755 usr
  % chmod 755 usr/local
  % chmod 755 usr/local/majordomo
  % chmod 755 usr/local/majordomo/Lists
  3. Change the definition of the $whereami variable from "YourCompany.COM" to your domain name (see line 2). You can do this by using pico, a simple easy to use UNIX text editor: 
      pico usr/local/majordomo/majordomo.cf

    If you are so inclined, feel free to edit any other configuration variable in usr/local/majordomo/majordomo.cf to your liking.

  4. Edit your etc/aliases and add aliases like the following: 
      # Majordomo Stuff
  majordomo: "|/usr/local/majordomo/wrapper majordomo"
  owner-majordomo: your_mail_address_here
  majordomo-owner: your_mail_address_here

    where your_mail_address_here is the email address of the majordomo administrator.

  5. Run the command "vnewaliases" to update the aliases database: 
            vnewaliases

Now that you have installed Majordomo on your Virtual Server, it would be very wise to read the documentation before you attempt to create mailing lists.

Documentation

Majordomo is not for the faint at heart. Please review the following files, which are included in the installation, before you attempt to use Majordomo. All questions sent to Support with regard to Majordomo mailing list configuration will be answered with a URL to this page.

list-owner-info

has information for list owner to get them started using majordomo and the config files.
 
majordomo.ora
 
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.

This chapter is a good introduction to setting up the majordomo software, be warned that it does not cover much of the list operation details under 1.90 that deal with config files. Then again the config files are supposed to be self documenting. A newer version of this chapter that has been updated for 1.90 is in the works, and should make it into the "Managing Internet Information Services" book. This newer chapter should be available via ftp in due time. Stay tuned to the majordomo-announce or majordomo-users mailing list for details.

majordomo.lisa6.ps
 
The original Majordomo paper from the USENIX LISA VI conference in October, 1992. While this paper is somewhat out of date (some of the details about how Majordomo works have changed, and many of the items mentioned as "to be implemented later" have since been implemented), it remains a valuable introduction to Majordomo's basic form and structure.
 
FAQ
 
The Majordomo FAQ.

Configuration

Do the following for each list (list-name) you want to create:

  1. Create an empty file called list-name ("my-list" in this example) in your usr/local/majordomo/Lists directory and make sure the file mode is "644": 
      % touch usr/local/majordomo/Lists/my-list
  % chmod 644 usr/local/majordomo/Lists/my-list
  2. Create a file called "list-name.passwd" in your usr/local/majordomo/Lists. This file will contain the list manager's "approve" password for the list (file mode 600). For example, you can use "cat" (or your favorite UNIX editor): 
      % cat > usr/local/majordomo/Lists/my-list.passwd
    mypassword
    ^D (control-D)
  % chmod 600 usr/local/majordomo/Lists/my-list.passwd

    where mypassword is the password for the mailing list administrator.

  3. Create a file called "list-name.info". This file will contains the initial introductory info for the list. To create this file you can use "cat" (or your favorite UNIX editor): 
      % cat > usr/local/majordomo/Lists/my-list.info
    This list is for discussions about my list.
    ^D (control-D)
  4. Add something like the following to your etc/aliases file: 
    
# "My-List" list
my-list: "|/usr/local/majordomo/wrapper resend -h mydomain.com -l my-list my-list-outgoing"
my-list-outgoing: :include:/usr/local/majordomo/Lists/my-list
owner-my-list: your_list_managers_address_here
my-list-request: "|/usr/local/majordomo/wrapper request-answer my-list"
my-list-approval: your_list_managers_address_here

    where your_list_managers_address_here is the email address of the mailing list administrator.

  5. Run "vnewaliases" to update the aliases database: 
            vnewaliases
  6. Give your new list a try.

Interfaces

There are various Web interfaces to Majordomo available.

Alternatives

Majordomo is certainly not the be-all, end-all solution for managing mailing lists. For example, Soft Ventures has developed a simple mail list server for Windows 95 and Windows NT called SVList. SVList is is a mailing list server designed for use with any PC running Windows 95/NT and having a SMTP mail server (such as the one included with your Virtual Server). Using SVList you can easily set up your own mail list.

Majordomo Help

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~barr/majordomo-faq.html

 

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