recipes

To restrict posting to a list from a certain address, put the following in the listdirectory/editor file:

|/usr/bin/ezmlm-reject
|([ $SENDER = validaddress@domain ] && exit 0 ; sed '1,/^$/s/^\(Subject: \)/\[INTERCEPT] /' | forward validaddress; exit 99)
|/usr/bin/ezmlm-send '/u/validaddress/brain'
|/usr/bin/ezmlm-warn '/u/validaddress/brain' || exit 0

Another way to restrict posting to a list from a certain address, using the listdirectory/editor file:

|egrep "^From:.*validaddress@validdomain" || (echo "This is an outgoing list only"; exit 100)
|.... (keep the standard lines)....

To create a backdoor address for mailing to a mail list (for example, for the list alist@domain.net posting will be done through alist-secret@domain.net):

• Create a link .qmail-alist-secret to alist/editor.
• Then, add the word to to the alist/headerremove file. This ensures that the secret address is removed from the message on posting. Also, you can add return-path, return-receipt-to, content-length, from (if required), received, x-mailer and x-originating-ip to the same file.
• Then, add To: alist@domain.net (and From: alist@domain.net is it was removed above) to the alist/headeradd file.
• Finally, link alist/.qmail to alist/owner, or to contain any delivery instructions for the owner or moderator, or even to a autoresponder. So, any mail sent to the secret address will be posted to the list, with the secret removed, while any mail sent to the list will be forwarded to the owner.

ezmlm mailing list commands by mail

ezmlm has a different address for each command. In essence, the address is the list name and the command. This is straight forward to interpret and therefore very fast. It also makes it very easy to send commands from the command line without having to worry about the subject and the message body (which are ignored).

Messages to the list address itself are sent to all subscribers and should never be used for administrative requests. If you have forgotten everything, send a message to mailinglist-help@example.org for the list mailinglist@example.org. If the instructions returned do not help you solve the problem, send a message to mailinglist-owner@example.org for human help, forwarding a message from the list and including any relevant information.

If you want to interact administratively with the ezmlm mailing list mailinglist@example.org, send an empty message (contents and subject are ignored) to mailinglist-command@example.org, replacing ``command'' with the desired command. For some commands, you can add arguments.

Destination address	Result
mailinglist-subscribe@example.org	Subscribe sender. ezmlm will send you a confirmation request, and once you reply to it a message confirming that you are a subscriber.
mailinglist-subscribe-user=gol.com@example.org	Subscribe user@gol.com. Here the default subscriber address (the one you send from) is overridden by an argument to the -subscribe command. To subscribe any address of type user.name@host.dom just replace the ``@'' in the address with ``='' and add it after a hyphen to the command. In this case mailinglist-subscribe-user.name=host.dom@example.org. Of course, ezmlm will ask user.name@host.dom to confirm the request.
mailinglist-unsubscribe@example.org	Unsubscribe sender. ezmlm will send a confirmation request to your address and remove the address once you reply.
mailinglist-unsubscribe-user=gol.com@example.org	Unsubscribe user@gol.com.
mailinglist-get.123@example.org	Get message 123 from the archive. If you specify a number that is larger than the highest message number in the archive, you'll receive the latest message.

ezmlm mailing list commands on the command line

To create a list
ezmlm-make [-aApP] dir dot local host
-a	(default) The list is archived (the file dir/archived is created, making ezmlm-send archive each message in dir/archive)
-A	List not archived
-p	(default) The list is public (the file dir/public is created)
-P	The list is private, subscriptions and unsubscriptions can only be done trough ezmlm-sub and ezmlm-unsub
dir	Absolute pathname for directory where the list is to be created
dot	Dot-qmail file controlling the list (the files dot, dot-owner, dot-return-default and dot-default are created in the given path)
local	List name
host	List host

Typical use
Normal user (logged in as himself)	ezmlm-make ~/SOS ~/.qmail-sos joe-sos isp.net	Creates the joe-sos@isp.net list
Alias	ezmlm-make ~alias/SOS ~alias/.qmail-sos sos isp.net chown -R alias.qmail ~alias/SOS	Creates the sos@isp.net list

List the subscriptions to a list
ezmlm-list dir
dir	Absolute pathname of the directory where the list resides

To subscribe someone to the list
ezmlm-sub dir box@domain ...
dir	Absolute pathname of the directory where the list resides
box@domain	Address(es) to subscribe to the list

To unsubscribe someone from the list
ezmlm-unsub dir box@domain ...
dir	Absolute pathname of the directory where the list resides
box@domain	Address(es) to unsubscribe from the list

ezmlm control files

file or directory	Function	Used by...
DIR/	Directory where the list resides
DIR/.qmail-default	Usually links to DIR/manager	qmail system
DIR/.qmail-owner	Usually links to DIR/owner	qmail system
DIR/.qmail-return-default	Usually links to DIR/bouncer	qmail system
DIR/.qmail	Usually links to DIR/editor	qmail system
DIR/Log	Advisory (not guaranteed to be complete) log file of subscriptions and unsubscriptions to the mailing list
DIR/Mailbox	The Mailbox file for the list owner
DIR/archive/	Contains the message archive of the list	ezmlm-manage
DIR/archived	The list will archive the messages if the file is present	ezmlm-send
DIR/bounce/	Archives bounced messages to subscribers. If a distribution bounce here is more than 10 days old, the bounce will be deleted, and a bounce warning will be issued. Is a bounce warning here is more than 10 days old, the bounce is deleted and a probe is issued. Bounced probes will remove the subscriber	ezmlm-warn
DIR/bouncer	Linked from the .qmail files, usually has instructions to handle bounce messages, by invoking ezmlm-return and ezmlm-warn
DIR/editor	Linked from the .qmail files, usually has instructions to invoke ezmlm-send and ezmlm-warn
DIR/headeradd	All new fields contained here are added to the message	ezmlm-send
DIR/headerremove	All fields listed here are removed from the message	ezmlm-send
DIR/inhost	The list management accepts commands if this file's contents match the message sender domain part of the address (see $HOST)	ezmlm-manage
DIR/inlocal	This file contains the list name	ezmlm-manage
DIR/key	Random garbage used in generating confirmation numbers	ezmlm-send
DIR/lock	Empty file, locked by any program that read or writes the subscriber lists or adds messages to the archive
DIR/mailinglist	The contents of this file is copied into a Mailing-List field in the header of the response	ezmlm-manage, ezmlm-send
DIR/manager	Linked from the .qmail files, usually has instructions to handle administrative messages, by invoking ezmlm-manage and ezmlm-warn
DIR/outhost	Contain the outgoing domain of the mailing list	ezmlm-manage, ezmlm-send
DIR/outlocal	Contain the outgoing name of the mailing list	ezmlm-manage, ezmlm-send
DIR/owner	Linked from the .qmail files, usually has instructions to handle messages for the mailing list owner, such as storing incoming messages in DIR/Mailbox and invoking ezmlm-warn
DIR/public	The list will accept administrative requests such as subscribe if this file is present. Also controls archive retrievals	ezmlm-manage
DIR/sublist	Controls sublists, the first line is the name of the parent list	ezmlm-send
DIR/subscribers/	Contains the subscriber lists
DIR/text/	Contains files used in response to administrative requests. The files here are processed so that !A is replaced in any file by the subscription address !R is replaced in sub-confirm and unsub-confirm by the destination address for the confirmation	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/bottom	Text added at the end of each message (usually explaining use)	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/bounce-bottom	Text separating the bounce message from the received message	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/bounce-num	Text explaining that ezmlm has kept a list of bounced message numbers	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/bounce-probe	Text mentioning that a warning message has bounced	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/bounce-warn	Text mentioning that messages have been bouncing	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/get-bad	Text rejecting a bad archive retrieval request	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/sub-bad	Text rejecting a bad subscription confirmation number	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/sub-confirm	Text explaining how to confirm a subscription request	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/sub-nop	Text acknowledging subscribing for an address already on the list	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/sub-ok	Text acknowledging successful subscribing	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/top	Text added at the start of each message (usually introducing ezmlm)	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/unsub-bad	Text rejecting a bad unsubscription confirmation number	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/unsub-confirm	Text explaining the unsubscription procedures	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/unsub-nop	Text acknowledging unsubscribing for an address not on the list	ezmlm-manage
DIR/text/unsub-ok	Text acknowledging successful unsubscribing	ezmlm-manage

The ezmlm message path

Given a list alist@domain.net, ezmlm accepts messages to the following addresses:

address	handled by DIR/	which is linked to DIR/
actions taken
alist@domain.net	.qmail	editor
DIR/editor contains something similar to (paths omitted for clarity, DIR to be replaced by the directory of the list): |ezmlm-reject |ezmlm-send 'DIR' |ezmlm-warn 'DIR' || exit 0 Therefore, a message sent to the main address of the list is (trough ezmlm-reject) checked for conformity with the list. That means that (by default) it must not have a command in the subject (HELP, SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE). The possible options for ezmlm-reject are: -c Commands not permitted in the subject (default) -C Commands permitted in the subject   -s Must have a non-empty subject (default) -S May have a empty subject   Then, is the message is not rejected, ezmlm-send sends it to the mailing list, its sole argument being the full path to the directory where the list lives. Finally, ezmlm-warn is executed, which scans the bounce directory and checks for messages bounced more that 10 days ago, and so on. This phase is not directly connected to the message, it just ensures the maintenance of the list in terms of bounces and so on.
alist-subscribe@domain.net	.qmail-default	manager
alist-sc.cookie@domain.net
alist-subscribe-user=address@domain.net
alist-unsubscribe@domain.net
alist-uc.cookie@domain.net
alist-unsubscribe-user=address@domain.net
alist-get.number@domain.net
alist-anything@domain.net
DIR/manager contains something similar to: |ezmlm-manage 'DIR' |ezmlm-warn 'DIR' || exit 0 Therefore, the message is handed to ezmlm-manage. This analyzes the local part of the destination address (in this case, alist-subscribe, alist-subscribe-user=address, etc) and acts on it. The possible formats for the local part of the address are: Local part Target Action alist-subscribe message sender Generates a subscription confirmation message, sent from alist-sc.cookie@domain.net, where cookie encodes the target. This message if not generated unless a DIR/public file exists alist-subscribe-user=address user@address alist-sc.cookie decoded cookie The target is added to the list of subscriptions alist-unsubscribe message sender Generates a unsubscription confirmation message, sent from alist-sc.cookie@domain.net, where cookie encodes the target. This message if not generated unless a DIR/public file exists alist-unsubscribe-user=address user@address alist-uc.cookie decoded cookie The target is removed from the list of subscriptions alist-get.number message sender The message with the given number is retrieved from DIR/archive and forwarded to the target alist-anything message sender A help message is sent to the target Finally, ezmlm-warn is executed, as above.
alist-return-@domain.net	.qmail-return-default	bouncer
alist-return-msg-@domain.net
alist-return-msg-user=address@domain.net
alist-return-warn-cookie-user=address@domain.net
alist-return-probe-cookie-user=address@domain.net
DIR/bouncer contains something similar to: |ezmlm-warn 'DIR' || exit 0 |ezmlm-weed |ezmlm-return 'DIR' Therefore, ezmlm-warn is called, to scan the bounce directory as above. Next, the incoming message is processed by ezmlm-weed, which discards it if it looks like a MTA warning message. If it doesn't look like a MTA warning message, it is passed to ezmlm-return. This analyzes the local part of the destination address (in this case, alist-return-, alist-return-msg-user=address, etc) and acts on it. The possible formats for the local part of the address are: Local part Target Action alist-return- none Ignored, a help message or subscription acknowledgment bounced alist-return-msg- as per message parsing This is a distribution bounce, the message number msg bounced from the target. Will store the message in the DIR/bounce directory alist-return-msg-user=address user@address alist-return-warn-cookie-user=address user@address This is a warning bounce, a warning from ezmlm-warn bounced. No action will be taken, as the original bounced message will be in DIR/bounce and aging. cookie will be validated. alist-return-probe-cookie-user=address user@address This is a probe bounce, a probe from ezmlm-warn bounced. The target will be removed from the list. cookie will be validated to ensure that this is not a spoofed message.
alist-owner@domain.net	.qmail-owner	owner
DIR/owner contains something similar to: DIR/Mailbox |ezmlm-warn 'DIR' || exit 0 So, a message to the owner of the list is stored in the Mailbox file, and then ezmlm-warn is called, as above.

ezmlm related links

• Author's home page
• See also Qmail home page