_ _ ____ _ ____ ____ ___ ____ _ _ ____ |\/| |__| | | | |__/ | \ | | |\/| | | | | | | _| |__| | \ |__/ |__| | | |__| Majordomo, noun: a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge for another. From Italian maggiordomo or Spanish mayordomo, both from Medieval Latin "major domus" - "chief of the house". (Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology) Release 1.94.1 README -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Current users of Majordomo whom are upgrading will want to <- -> read the NEWS file for details on what has changed between <- -> this and the previous version of Majordomo. <- -> In particular, NOTE THE CHANGES TO THE CONFIGURATION FILE. <- -> A new variable has been added to sample.cf, while another has <- -> changed its name and several defaults have been modified, so <- -> check it out and merge your existing majordomo.cf with the <- -> supplied sample.cf. Running the 'config-test' script after <- -> upgrading will point out the variables you need to add. <- Release 1.94.1 of Majordomo is primarily a bugfix release, incorporating changes which fix problems or correct pressing deficiencies in version 1.94. No substantial new functionality has been added, but certain necessary modifications have been made. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * If you know what Majordomo is and simply want install it, read the INSTALL file. Browse through this file, though; there's probably something new here. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * -------------------- * What is Majordomo? -------------------- From the fine Majordomo FAQ (found in Doc/FAQ), maintained by Dave Barr : Majordomo is a program which automates the management of Internet mailing lists. Commands are sent to Majordomo via electronic mail to handle all aspects of list maintainance. Once a list is set up, virtually all operations can be performed remotely, requiring no intervention upon the postmaster of the list site. Here's a short list of some of the features of Majordomo. * supports various types of lists, including moderated ones. * List options can be set easily through a configuration file, editable remotely. * Supports archival and remote retrieval of messages. * Supports digests. * Written in Perl, - easily customizable and expandable. * Modular in design. * Includes support for FTPMAIL. Majordomo is a "groupware" project. It has evolved from the initial code base done by Brent Chapman (brent@greatcircle.com), with further maintenance done by John Rouillard (rouilj@cs.umb.edu). The current Majordomo maintainer is Chan Wilson (cwilson@sgi.com). Along the way, it has picked up many features and additions from various authors. Because of this, and due to the initial design of Majordomo, certain features (archiving, digesting, and moderated lists) are currently done in a "non-optimum" fashion. In short, configuring Majordomo to do some of the advanced features can be confusing. This is a known problem and is being worked on. You'll need the following to use Majordomo: o Perl, version 4.036 or version 5.002 (or better) **NOTE** Future versions of Majordomo will *NOT* work with perl4. o a C compiler Other programs that might be useful are: o bulk_mailer: ftp://cs.utk.edu/pub/moore/bulk_mailer For large lists. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The INSTALL file details how to install and configure Majordomo. Once you've installed Majordomo, the NEWLIST file describes how to add new lists under Majordomo control. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The rest of this README file fills in background information on Majordomo, where to get help, find others using Majordomo, common problems, and some other bits: * Attributions * Mailing Lists/Support * More Documentation * The list configuration files * Common Problems * Error Messages * Using Digest and Archive * Other Programs * Tricks * Customizing the default list config values -------------- * Attributions -------------- Majordomo and digest were originally written by Brent Chapman, however he doesn't have the time currently to do more development on it. John Rouillard did a lot of work for configuration files and managed the releases for the 1.62 to 1.93 timeframe. Chan Wilson (cwilson@sgi.com) is currently "release coordinator" for 1.94 and beyond. The FAQ was compiled by Vincent D. Skahan and is currently being maintained by David Barr . In addition to those above, the following people deserve recognition for their contributions in shaping Majordomo: Andrew Boyd Paul Close R. Gary Cutbill Hamilton Gilbert Jennifer Joy Alan Millar John C. Orthoefer Jerry Peek Paul Pomes Jason L Tibbitts III Dave Wolfe To anybody I left off the attributions list, my apologies. Let me know that I left you off, and I will make sure that you get mention in a future release. ----------------------- * Mailing Lists/Support ----------------------- There are four mailing lists about Majordomo on GreatCircle.com. The wise Majordomo-Owner is strongly advised to subscribe to Majordomo-Announce to learn of new versions and patches to Majordomo. This list is very low volume. People with questions about configuring, installing, or using Majordomo should subscribe to Majordomo-Users. People interesting in technical discussion of Majordomo, and developments on it, should join Majordomo-Workers. Majordomo-Users - for discussions on using Majordomo Majordomo-Announce - for announcements of new releases Majordomo-Workers - for people interested in development of Majordomo. Majordomo-Docs - for people interested in development of documentation for Majordomo. To subscribe to any of the lists above, send an appropriate "subscribe" command to "Majordomo@GreatCircle.COM". -------------------- * More Documentation -------------------- The 'Doc' directory contains the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), which should answer most of your questions. In the 'Doc/man' directory, you'll find manual pages for approve, bounce, bounce-remind, digest, resend, and majordomo. For your list-managers, the file Doc/list-owner-info contains some good information. It can be sent to them and should be enough information to get them started using majordomo. You'll want to update it for your site-specific needs. 'Doc/majordomo.ora' contains 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. While this chapter is a good introduction to setting up the majordomo software, it is a tad out of date, since it covers version 1.62. :-( Jerry is in the process of updating this for 1.94.1, and an updated version will hopefully be included in future releases. The original LISA 6 (Oct 1992, Long Beach, CA) paper describing Majordomo is at Doc/majordomo.lisa6.ps. PLEASE NOTE that it is useful only for getting a feel for majordomo. It should not be used as an installation document. You did read the FAQ, didn't you? ------------------------------ * The list configuration files ------------------------------ Each list has a configuration file associated with it, .config. If a list does not have it's .config file, issue a 'lists' command to Majordomo -- it'll create one for you. Ideally, the config file is meant to be self-documenting, but at the moment it can be overwhelming to a novice user. This will be fixed in a future release. The best way to learn about the configuration file is to issue a 'config ' to Majordomo, and carefully read through the results. Also read the Doc/list-owner-info file, which explains some of the more commonly tweaked variables. In addition to the .config file, there are .info and .intro files that hold informative and introduction information about the list. These files are best changed via Majordomo's 'newinfo' and 'newintro' commands. The file .intro contains the "intro" text for the list, which is sent in response to "intro" and successful "subscribe" commands. The file .info contains the "info" text for the list, which is sent in response to "info"; it's also sent after a "subscribe" command if no "intro" file exists. In a future version of majordomo, the option will be provided to keep the info in the config file rather than using an external file. However, the external file is useful if you are serving up the info information by some means other than majordomo (e.g. Web, finger, ftp). ------------------------------- * Common Problems and Debugging ------------------------------- Nearly all the install problems are now caught by the 'config-test' script that one runs after the install. What is left, then, is primarily incorrect usage caused by configuring the aliases improperly, and changing the own