Recipe 20.16. Creating a Mail List with couriermlm
20.16.1 Problem
You want to
set up some mail lists on your Postfix/Courier mail server.
20.16.2 Solution
You'll need couriermlm (Courier
mailing list manager), dot-courier,
and cron.
Users can create a list in any directory where they have write
permissions. You might want to set up list directories for your users
outside of their home directories, for example in
/var.
Run this command to create a directory for a new mailing list:
$ couriermlm create /var/lists/php_list ADDRESS=php@test.net
This creates a directory chock-full of templates and subdirectories:
$ ls -xa php_list
. ..
adminrequest.tmpl archive
bounces commands
confsubj.tmpl digestsubj.tmpl
fetch.tmpl fetchsubj.tmpl
headeradd help.tmpl
idxheader2html.tmpl idxheaderhtml.tmpl
idxheadertxt.tmpl idxsubject.tmpl
modqueue modrejbody.tmpl
modreject.tmpl modrejheader.tmpl
modsubject.tmpl modtext.tmpl
modtext2.tmpl options
sub.tmpl sub2.tmpl
sub3.tmpl sub4.tmpl
sub5.tmpl sublist
subreportfooter.tmpl subreporthdr.tmpl
subreporthdr1.tmpl subreporthdr2.tmpl
subreporthdr3.tmpl tmp
unsub.tmpl unsub2.tmpl
unsub3.tmpl unsublist
warn1headers.tmpl warn1text.tmpl
warn1text2.tmpl warn2msg.tmpl
Read the following template files, and edit them as necessary to suit
your needs:
- help.tmpl
-
The message that Courier sends in response to help requests.
- sub.tmpl
-
Subscription is a two-step process, requiring confirmation to
minimize bogus and forged subscriptions.
sub.tmpl is the first reponse to a subscription
request.
- sub.tmpl
-
The final confirmation message, containing additional list
instructions.
- headeradd
-
Put any additional mail headers you want on list messages here.
- headerdel
-
Put any mail headers you want deleted here.
If you're running a public list and
don't want to expose subscribers'
personal addresses to spammers, use headerdel
and headeradd together:
# headerdel
Reply-To:
From:
# headeradd
Reply-To:php@test.net
From:php@test.net
Next, set up /etc/crontab to run
couriermlm's
hourly and daily commands:
# m h dom mon dow user command
@midnight alice couriermlm daily /var/lists/php_list
@hourly alice couriermlm hourly /var/lists/php_list
Finally, create some dot-courier files to direct
administrative list mails to the appropriate user. These files go in
the list manager's home directory. In this example,
the php@test.net list is administered by user
valorie. First, valorie
creates /home/valorie/.courier-php. That tells
the location of the php list:
/usr/bin/couriermlm msg /var/lists/php_list
Next is /home/valorie/.courier-php-owner:
valorie@test.net
And finally, /home/valorie/.courier-php-default:
/usr/bin/couriermlm ctlmsg /var/lists/php_list
This directs all the administrative list mail, such as
subscribe/unsubscribe and help requests, to the correct mail list.
20.16.3 Discussion
The hourly and daily
commands clean up any stale entries in the
/var/lists/php_list/commands directory.
List users will use the following commands, in the
list-command@domain format:
php-help@test.net
php-subscribe@test.net
php-unsubscribe@test.net
This is where those dot-courier files come into
play, by directing these requests to the right places.
20.16.4 See Also
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