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MAJORDOMO(8)
NAME
  Majordomo - manage multiple mailing lists

SYNOPSIS
  Majordomo

DESCRIPTION
  Majordomo is a perl script which automates the management of Internet
  mailing lists.  It is executed via electronic mail; users send e-mail to
  Majordomo with instructions in the body of the message, and the perl script
  performs the requested actions and responds with the results.	 Any text in
  the "Subject:" line is ignored.

COMMANDS
  Majordomo understands the following commands (arguments in "[]" are
  optional):

  subscribe list [address]

  Subscribe yourself (or address if specified) to the named list.

  unsubscribe list [address]

  Unsubscribe yourself (or address if specified) from the named list.  If
  list is ``*'' (an asterisk), unsubscribe from all lists on this Majordomo
  server.

  auth special-word subscribe list address

  If the list subscribe policy setting includes +confirm, Majordomo will ask
  for confirmation before a subscription is approved.  The conformation
  request will show the special-word to send with auth .

  get list file

  Get the file related to list.

  index list

  Return an index of the files you can get associated with list.

  which [address]

  Find out to which lists you (or address if specified) are subscribed.

  who list

  Find out who is on the named list.

  info list

  Retrieve the general introductory information for the named list.

  intro list

  Retrieve the introductory message sent to new users of list.	Non-
  subscribers may not be able to retrieve this.

  lists

  Show the lists served by this Majordomo server. It will also show a 50
  character list description if one has been provided.

  help

  Retrieve an informational message, a brief synopsis of the user portion of
  this manual page.

  end

  Stop processing commands (useful if your mailer adds a signature).

  A command may be split across multiple lines if all of the lines in the
  command except the last end with a backslash "\".

  In addition, the owner of the list can issue the following commands:

  approve password subscribe list address

  Instruct Majordomo to add address to list.  The password is required to
  authenticate the list owner.	This is very weak authentication as the
  password is transmitted in the clear in an e-mail message. No claims are
  made that it will provide anything other than rudimentary protection
  against abuse of the Majordomo server.

  approve password unsubscribe list address

  Instruct Majordomo to delete address from list.  The password is required
  to authenticate the list owner.  See the comments above regarding the
  password.

  newinfo list password

  Update the informational message for list with the text which follows on
  subsequent lines.  No formatting of the message occurs, so the list owner
  should be careful to constrain the message to eighty columns.	 Majordomo
  will include everything up to the string EOF or to the end of the mail
  message, whichever comes first.  This is useful in case the owner wants to
  verify the new message immediately, e.g.,

	    To: majordomo
	    newinfo list password

	    This is new information for the "list" list.

	    EOF
	    info list

       This will simultaneously update the information for the list, and then
       retrieve it for verification.  Note that blank lines are preserved in
       the message.

  newintro list password

  Similar to newinfo , but updates the (optional) introductory message sent
  to new list subscribers.  passwd list old-password new-password

  Replace the password for list with new-password.

  config list password

  retrieve a self-documenting configuration file for the list <list>.  The
  password can be the password contained in the file <listname>.passwd or the
  admin_password in the configuration file.

  newconfig list password

  Validates and installs a new configuration file. The config file includes
  everything up to the string EOF or to the end of the mail message,
  whichever comes first. The config file is expected to be a complete config
  file as returned by the "config" command.  Incremental changing of the
  config file is not yet supported.  As soon as the config file is validated
  and installed its settings are available for use. This is useful to
  remember if you have multiple commands in your mail message since they will
  be subject to the settings of the new config file.  If there is an error in
  the config file (incorrect value...), the config file will not be accepted
  and the error message identifying the problem line(s) will be returned to
  the sender. Note that only the errors are returned to the sender not the
  entire config file.

  writeconfig list password

  Write a new config in standard form. All of the config file documentation
  is optional. Only the keywords and values are necessary. If a config file,
  stripped of all comments is installed using newconfig, that is what is
  returned by config.  Writeconfig forces a rewrite of the config file with
  all comments and default values in place. It is useful to use after an
  upgrade of majordomo since it will add the new keywords for people to
  change. It also updates the documentation in the file if that has changed.

  mkdigest
       digest-list-name [ outgoing-address ] password

  This will force a digest for the specified list to be created. It is most
  useful if you don't have an account on the machine that handles the digest
  for your list.  The optional outgoing-address will override the default
  address, listname-outgoing, for distributing the digests; this is usually
  done for security.

CONFIGURATION
  (Note that this section has not been updated to majordomo version 1.90).
  Majordomo supports open and closed lists.  An open list is one to which
  anyone can subscribe themselves.  A subscription request sent to Majordomo
  for a closed list is forwarded to the owner of the list for approval.	 If a
  user tries to subscribe an address which is different from their own (for
  example, a local list exploder), Majordomo will forward the request to the
  list owner for approval, regardless of the open or closed status of the
  list.

  Majordomo depends on the existence of certain system mail aliases.  The
  first three are for running the perl script on incoming e-mail and
  specifying the responsible person in charge of the server:

  majordomo: "|/usr/local/mail/majordomo/wrapper majordomo"
  majordomo-owner: brent
  owner-majordomo: brent

  These next few aliases are for a list called "sample":

  sample: :include:/usr/local/mail/lists/sample
  owner-sample: sample-owner
  sample-request: "|/usr/local/mail/majordomo/wrapper request-answer sample"
  owner-sample-request: sample-owner
  sample-owner: brent
  sample-approval: brent

FILES
  /etc/majordomo.cf
  /usr/local/lib/mail/majordomo/

BUGS
  This man page has not been fully updated to conform to majordomo 1.90.

AUTHORS
  Majordomo and most of the ancillary perl code was written by Brent Chapman,
  <brent@GreatCircle.COM>.  The latest version of the code is available by
  anonymous FTP from FTP.GreatCircle.COM, in directory pub/majordomo.  This
  man page was written by Jim Duncan, <jim@math.psu.edu>. Minimal update of
  the man page by John Rouillard <rouilj@cs.umb.edu>.

Index for Section 8

Alphabetical listing for M

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