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A major update of the Majordomo (mailing list management) software has been underway for some months now. Information relating to Majordomo including the CVS tree for the development version are located: http://www.hpc.uh.edu/majordomo/ I've been following the discussions on the development list and I'm planning on setting up the new version on a test basis within the next few weeks... david potter ====================================================================== **(http://www.hpc.uh.edu/majordomo/#mj2)** Majordomo '2' Information Currently in development is Majordomo 2. This is a complete rewrite of Majordomo, making full use of Perl 5 features, modules and object-oriented buzzwords. It is not ready for prime-time use, although it is currently in alpha release. A test server is running; join up with majordomo-workers for more information. Mj2 - Features ------------------------------- Majordomo 2 supports many new features; too many to list. Here are a few: + Majordomo fully understands MIME at all levels, will not bomb on or mangle MIME message, and can make use of special MIME goodies here appropriate. + List owners can control what is sent to the list and what is sent to users; the owner can customize specific messages to inform the user down to the action of an individual taboo or admin match. + Majordomo runs with full taint checks, warnings, and strict checking enabled. Any warning is considered a bug (during development; these will probably be turned off to protect against perl progress once release time comes). + The internal Majordomo routines have been decoupled from the interface, making multiple interfaces possible. + Installation is prompt-driven; there is no Makefile editing required. Majordomo tries to figure out for itself what your system needs, and will check for its prerequisites and ask you questions. + Reliance on the wrapper is mostly eliminated on platforms which support it. This includes Solaris, Linux, and Digital Unix but not HP-UX. On platforms where perl supports it, the small Majordomo executables run setuid and setgid. Nothing runs as root. + Majordomo will create all necessary directories and install all files in their proper locations. + Majordomo supports virtual domains; it supports many completely separate collections of lists. This appears to users as several separate Majordomo installations. + Majordomo can create its own lists. If using a supported MTA, Majordomo can provide all required aliases or give configuration instructions. (Currently support for Sendmail and qmail is implemented.) + Fewer aliases are required; Majordomo no longer needs (and can no longer make use of) the insecure outgoing alias to deliver mail. Majordomo can maintain alias and virtusertable files by itself, enabling (in some configurations) completely automatic new list creation. Majordomo can even work entirely without aliases by using the shell interface and the 'post' command. + Majordomo keeps its lists in databases; this allows per-subscriber status such as flags like 'nomail' and other data to be kept. Majordomo provides facilities to convert lists of addresses into its database format easily; it also provides for removal of addresses by regular expressions and for removing all matching addresses. The reasons why address list editing was needed with 1.9x have been eliminated. + Majordomo can run with very strict permissions; the list files no longer have to be made world-readable. + Majordomo incorporates its own advanced delivery mechanism, similar to that in bulk_mailer or TLB, rendering those programs obsolete. It can also interface directly into qmail. + The list configuration mechanism has changed. You can still retrieve the config file, edit it, and send it back, but you can also retrieve a subset of the variables and set them without first retrieving them. You can also choose to see the comments or not. + The approval process has been made much simpler; you can simply reply to the consultation message (or type a shell command or visit a web page) if you do not wish to edit the message before it is sent. Consultations can now be sent safely to a group of people without fear that more than one will approve the message (though actually sending to a group is not yet implemented). If old-style approval is still required, it will work and has been extended to cope with MIME. + You can choose exactly what notifications you want to receive. Notifications can be sent immediately, or summarized in a periodic report. (Reports not yet implemented.) + Users can choose whether they will receive copies of their own messages and copies of messages which have been sent directly to them in addition to the list server. Users can also choose to receive messages with or without a Subject: prefix and with or without a Reply-To: header. + You can set up multiple fronters and footers which will be randomly chosen to be added. (This could be used for advertisements or a number of other things.) You can also choose to have fronters or footers to be added to some percentage of all messages. + You can choose to filter out messages containing MIME parts that you don't want appearing on the list. + The confirmation process has been made much simpler; instead of sending back a line verbatim and worrying about line wrapping and such, the user can simply reply to the message or visit a web page. + The email interface supports MIME, so even if you have to send through a gateway that converts your messages to quoted-printable, Majordomo can still read your commands. + Easy access to FAQ lists are provided via the faq command. + When someone tries to forge subscribe requests in your name and you explicitly reject the confirmation tokens, you and other responsible parties will be sent a record of the forgery including what is hopefully enough for your sysadmin to track down the perpetrator. </snip..>
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