[Also posted to comp.mail.list-admin.software]
On the morning of 7-Mar-97, I posted a question to
comp.mail.list-admin.software regarding the fact that messages sent to my
Majordomo 1.94.1 alias were being distributed without the expected headers
(including Reply-to, Precendence, and the headers I specified in
message_headers of the mailing list's config) as well as without the
Subject prefix, Message fronter and Message footer.
Thanks to a response by Jason L Tibbitts III <tibbs@hpc.uh.edu> and the
help of my ISP's support team, I was able to resolve this problem today
and I'd like to summarize the problem and its solution as well as offer
a draft for inclusion of the FAQ (since this is a frequently encountered
problem not currently addressed in the FAQ for version 1.94.3).
PROBLEM: When using Majordomo, headers and other message features
specified in the config file of the mailing list, including
the Reply-To header, Precedence header, headers specified in
message_headers, fronter specified in message_fronter, footer
specified in message_footer, and Subject keyword specified in
subject_prefix.
[This problem was exhibited on a system using Majordomo 1.94.1,
Perl 5.003, SunOS and sendmail, but applies to any system using
Majordomo and exhibiting the same symptom.]
SOLUTION: Verify that the mail aliases (in /etc/aliases or
a similar file) includes an alias for your list that uses
the "resend" command. A sample alias including resend is
included in the documentation for NEWLIST:
It's more likely that the outgoing messages to the list will be
passed through "resend" to catch Majordomo commands, as well as
give other useful features. A typical set of aliases without anything
fancy, such as archiving or digesting, would look like this:
test: "|/usr/test/majordomo-1.94/wrapper resend -l test test-list"
test-list: :include:/usr/test/majordomo-1.94/lists/test
owner-test: you,
test-owner: you
test-request: "|/usr/test/majordomo-1.94/wrapper majordomo -l test"
[Note that your path to majordomo and wrapper may differ widely from
/usr/test/majordomo-1.94/ and that current distributions of majordomo
use a slightly different path.]
Thanks to Jason and emf's support, my list is now working perfectly.
It was difficult to find good resources to help me track down this
problem. Since I'm not a sysadmin, I don't have access to the
documentation that is included with the majordomo distribution
(short of downloading the entire distribution). Perhaps at some point,
the full documentation can be included on the Majordomo web site
separately?
Jason pointed me to the excellent resource available at
http://www.hpc.uh.edu/majordomo-users/
which was very helpful. This is a searchable and browsable archive
of every post to the majordomo-users list, where questions are
frequently asked and answered. I hope future versions of the FAQ
and an update to the list of resources at
http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/
and
http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/Internet/Electronic_Mai
l/Mailing_Lists/Majordomo/
will include a pointer to this resource.
Since the FAQ is the first place that most people turn, I'd like to offer
the following proposed Draft FAQ entries for approval.
PROPOSED ADDITION to
1.5 - Where do I report bugs or get help with Majordomo?
[following the second paragraph]
Before posting a question to majordomo-users@greatcircle.com
or comp.mail.list-admin.software, it's an excellent idea to
search and browse through the most recent two months of discussion,
since many of the same questions are asked over and over again.
An archive of majordomo-users posts is available at
http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/archive/
but the contents are compressed. A more recent archive, which
is searchable and browsable using an experimental interface,
is available at
http://www.hpc.uh.edu/majordomo-users/
PROPOSED ADDITION to
2.3 - I get "Unknown mailer error" when majordomo runs
[following existing section 2.3]
* Whenever I send mail to the list, it fails with "unknown mailer
error 2" -- how can I fix this?
There are three main causes to unknown mailer error 2. The first cause
is an error in the aliases for your list. If the alias uses resend,
the alias should include two parameters following -l -- the alias
of the list and the name of the include/expansion alias for the list.
See the sample alias section for more details.
The second cause of this error is incorrect permissions. Majordomo
requires certain permissions and the ability to run as the "majordom"
user. See section 2 for more information.
The third cause of this error is an old version of Perl. As stated
in section 1.1, certain versions of Perl will not run with Majordomo.
If you see the phrase "regexp *+ operand could be empty" in the
"Transcript of session" error mail, then you need to update your
Perl version.
PROPOSED NEW ENTRIES:
* My messages are not being rewritten with the headers, fronters,
footers, reply-to, and subject that I've specified in my mailing list's
config -- what am I doing wrong?
You're not using resend in your mailing list alias.
If the outgoing mail is not passed through the filtering program (resend),
nothing you specify in the config file will have any effect on the mail
that is sent out. Period. [Jason L Tibbitts III, 7-May-97]
See the next section for more details.
* What is resend and why do I need it?
You can think of resend as a filter for the list. It filters list
mail to trap suspect headers and keywords, polices who can post to
moderated/restricted lists, edits and inserts headers, and inserts
fronters (headings) and/or footers into the body. [Dave Wolfe, 12-Mar-97]
To use resend, don't run it (or majordomo for that matter)
from the command line. Instead, it must be called from a mail
alias. See the sample alias section for more details.
* Sample alises: What should my aliases look like?
As stated in the NEWLIST documentation that is shipped with Majordomo:
[...] A typical set of aliases without anything
fancy, such as archiving or digesting, would look like this:
test: "|/usr/test/majordomo-1.94/wrapper resend -l test test-list"
test-list: :include:/usr/test/majordomo-1.94/lists/test
owner-test: you,
test-owner: you
test-request: "|/usr/test/majordomo-1.94/wrapper majordomo -l test"
[Note that your path to majordomo and wrapper may differ widely from
/usr/test/majordomo-1.94/ and that current distributions of majordomo
use a slightly different path.]
Here are two incorrect examples and their consequences, followed
by a correct example.
Incorrect Example #1:
foo-list: :include: /path/majordom/lists/foo-list
foo-list-request: "|/path/majordom/wrapper majordomo -l foo-list"
owner-foo-list: foo-list-owner
foo-list-approval: foo-list-owner
foo-list-owner: jblow@somewhere.net
This will work in that messages to foo-list will be distributed
to the subscribers of foo-list, but since it doesn't use resend,
none of resend's features (including moderation, header altering,
etc.) will be available.
Incorrect Example #2:
foo-list: "|/path/majordom/wrapper majordomo -l foo-list foo-list-outgoing"
foo-list-outgoing: :include: /path/majordom/Lists/foo-list
foo-list-request: "|/path/majordom/wrapper majordomo -l foo-list"
owner-foo-list: jblow@somewhere.net
foo-list-owner: jblow@somewhere.net
foo-list-approval: jblow@somewhere.net
The alias for foo-list in this incorrect example includes the
separate "majordomo" element when it should use "resend". This
example would result in an unknown mailer error 2.
In additon, for both incorrect examples #1 and #2,
it's useful to include the comma after the username in
the alias for owner-foo-list, since the comma prevents
expansion of the alias to the accountname.
Correct example:
foo-list: "|/path/majordom/wrapper resend -l foo-list foo-list-outgoing"
foo-list-outgoing: :include: /path/majordom/lists/foo-list
foo-list-request: "|/path/majordom/wrapper majordomo -l foo-list"
owner-foo-list: foo-list-owner
foo-list-approval: foo-list-owner
foo-list-owner: jblow@somewhere.net
Note the inclusion of both foo-list and foo-list-outgoing in
the alias for foo-list, and the subsequent alias for foo-list-outgoing.
--END OF PROPOSED FAQ ADDITIONS
Finally, two personal thank you's:
I'm very impressed with the advice of Jason Tibbitts and Dave Wolfe.
majordomo-users is a very busy mailing list with a lot of needy users
(people just like me!) and they handle everything with selfless diplomacy,
aplomb and very high expertise. Thank you very much.
Thanks also to the hard-working people at emf.net, an excellent
Berkeley-based ISP, for their quick response to my support issue.
--Stephen
--
E. Stephen Mack <estephen@emf.net> http://www.emf.net/~estephen/
Visit Christian Crumlish's Bookstore: http://www.syx.com/bookstore/
Follow-Ups:
|
|
