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APPROVE(1)


NAME

  approve - approve a Majordomo request


SYNOPSIS

  approve [filename]


DESCRIPTION

  approve automates the task of replying to an approval request from
  Majordomo.  Input is the e-mail message containing Majordomo's request,
  read from filename, or read from standard input if no filename is
  specified.

  approve currently understands two types of requests; those requesting
  subscription to a closed list, and those which bounced due to a lack of
  permission to post to a moderated, or private, mailing list.	approve reads
  the body of the message from Majordomo to determine the appropriate action.
  Assuming a message containing a subscription request like the following:

     From: Majordomo@This.COM
     To: this-list-approval@This.COM

     Joe User <User@Fubar.COM> requests you approve the following:

	subscribe this-list Joe User <User@Fubar.COM>

     If you approve, send a line such as the following to Majordomo@This.COM:

	approve PASSWD subscribe this-list Joe User <User@Fubar.COM>

  then running approve on the message by saving it in a file, e.g.,

     approve /tmp/request

  or

     approve < /tmp/request

  will result in the following reply to Majordomo:

     To: Majordomo@This.COM

     approve PASSWD subscribe this-list User@Fubar.COM (Joe User)

  If approve is on the user's path, then it's possible to execute it via a
  shell escape, piping the current message to approve from a mail program,
  e.g.,

     !approve

  would approve the current message in /usr/ucb/Mail.

  If, in the latter case, the "Subject:" line of the request from Majordomo
  is "BOUNCE <list>: <reason>", the message is treated as a posting rejected
  by resend for some reason, and is reformatted with appropriate "Approved:"
  headers to cause it to succeed, and then it is resubmitted to Majordomo for
  posting.  This provides an easy mechanism for the moderator of a mailing
  list to approve postings to the list.


CONFIGURATION

  approve assumes that the approve password for each list is the same as the
  approval password used by resend, and that this password is stored in a
  file called .majordomo in the user's home directory.	The file has the
  following format:

       this-list    passwd1   Majordomo@This.COM
       other-list   passwd2   Majordomo@Other.GOV

  The first column specifies the name of the mailing list, the second column
  specifies the list-owner's password for the given list, and the third
  column specifies the e-mail address of the associated Majordomo server.  It
  is assumed that the value in the third column is an Internet-style
  "something@somewhere" address, and that postings for "List" should be sent
  to "List@somewhere".	Since this file only needs to be read by the user, it
  should be mode 600 to protect the passwords.


FILES

  ~/.majordomo
  /usr/local/lib/mail/majordomo/


SEE ALSO

  majordomo(8),perl(1),resend(1).


BUGS

  There is no direct support for MH(1), so MH users will have to run approve
  directly on the message file in their inbox.

  The .majordomo file requires an at-sign, "@", in the address of the
  Majordomo server, even if it colocated on the same system as the list-
  owner.


AUTHORS

  Majordomo and most of the ancillary perl code was written by Brent Chapman,
  <brent@GreatCircle.COM>. This man page was written by Jim Duncan,
  <jim@math.psu.edu>.

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