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bounce(1)


NAME

  bounce, bounce-remind - handle majordomo list subscribers whose mail is
  undeliverable


SYNOPSIS

  bounce [-d] [-f config-file ] [-majordomo server-address ] [-unsub]
  majordomo-list user-address

  bounce [-d] [-f config-file ] [-majordomo server-address ] -expire [-maxage
  days ] bounce-address-file

  bounce-remind


AVAILABILITY

  Provided with distributions of Majordomo.


DESCRIPTION

  bounce and bounce-remind are perl scripts which help list owners handle
  subscribers whose mail is bouncing.  Mail is "bounced" in this context when
  it is undeliverable because hosts or addresses are unreachable or because
  of other mail errors.

  Mail is also "bounced" by the resend script for various administrative
  reasons; these bounces are described in approve(1).

  When a list owner observes that an email address consistently causes mail
  errors, the owner may use bounce to remove the address from the list and
  place the address on a special bounces mailing list.

  bounce-remind, which should be run nightly by cron(4M), sends a message to
  each of the user addresses on the bounces list, on the chance that the mail
  error has been corrected.  The message informs the addressee that their
  mail has been undeliverable and that they have been removed from one or
  more majordomo lists.	 It also instructs them how to unsubscribe from the
  bounces list and re-subscribe to the list of their choice.

  bounce can also be used to expire addresses off the bounces list after a
  predetermined number of days.

  If bounce is invoked under a name that contains ``unsub'' it will simply
  unsubscribe the offending address from the majordomo list; it will not
  place the address on the bounces list.


OPTIONS

  These options relate to bounce; bounce-remind takes no arguments or
  options.

  -d	    Debug; print what would be done, but don't do it.

  -f config-file
	    Use the specified configuration file.  The default is
	    ~/.majordomo, and the format for this file is described in the
	    CONFIGURATION section of the approve(1) man page.  This file
	    provides the list-owner's password for each list and the address
	    of the corresponding Majordomo server.

  -majordomo server-address
	    Use this server-address for majordomo rather than the address
	    from the configuration file.

  -unsub    Unsubscribes the offending address from the majordomo list,
	    without entering that address on the bounces list.	This is
	    equivalent to invoking bounce under a name containing ``unsub''.

  -expire   Expire entries from the specified bounces list.

  -maxage days
	    Expire entries older than days.  The default is coded into the
	    bounce script as $default_maxage days.  It is set to 21 days in
	    the majordomo distribution.


OPERANDS

  majordomo-list
	    The list from which the offending user-address should be removed.

  user-address
	    The address to which mail is currently undeliverable.

  bounce-address-file
	    The name of the file that contains the bounces list.


CONFIGURATION

  If bounce is going to be used only to unsubscribe users, a link can be
  created whose name contains ``unsub'' so that users could be unsubscribed
  simply by typing

     unsub firewalls-digest fury@world.std.com

  for example.

  In any case, a configuration file must exist and must contain the names of
  the owner's lists, along with their respective passwords and the email
  address of the associated Majordomo server.  The format of this file is
  given in the CONFIGURATION section of the approve(1) man page.  The default
  name for this file is ~/.majordomo, and the same file can serve for both
  the approve and bounce scripts.

  The bounces list, if it is used, must be created.  It is like any other
  Majordomo list excepting that the priority of this list should be set to
  junk and its owner and sender should be nobody. Of course, the ``nobody''
  mail alias must exist; it is should be set to /dev/null.  That is,

     nobody: /dev/null

  This will spare the human list owner as well as the postmaster from having
  to deal with mail bouncing from the bounces list.

  A cron(1M) job should be set up to run bounce-remind every night.  bounce-
  remind must run on the same server as the bounces list; it mails a message
  to everyone on the list advising them that they have been removed from one
  or more Majordomo lists and instructs them how to get off the bounces list
  and back on the list of their choice.

  bounce can only expire addresses if it has a copy of the bounces subscriber
  file, so this can either be run on the server occasionally by the Majordomo
  administrator or by a cron job.  It can also be run remotely with a copy of
  the bounces file retrived by the use of the ``who bounces'' command to
  majordomo.


FILES

  /etc/aliases
  /etc/majordomo.cf


SEE ALSO

  majordomo(8),approve(1)


AUTHOR

  Majordomo and most of the ancillary perl code was written by Brent Chapman
  <brent@GreatCircle.COM>.  Majordomo is available via anonymous FTP from
  FTP.GreatCircle.COM, in the directory pub/majordomo.	This man page was
  written by Kevin Kelleher <fury@world.std.com>.

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