ezmlm-idx from versions 0.23 and up writes list configuration files in a standardized format. If ezmlm-make(1) is invoked with the -e or -+ switch and the ‘DIR’ argument only, ezmlm-make(1) will read other arguments from this file. The difference between the switches is that with -e the options used are the ones specified on the command line, whereas with -+ they are the ones currently active for the list, as overridden by any command line options. Thus, with just:
% ezmlm-make -+ DIR
you can rebuild the list, without affecting any archives, list state variables, etc. You will lose manual customizations to some of your files. However, text files and DIR/headeradd are protected against being overwritten, so that your manual customizations of these files are retained. To override this protection, simply specify the used edit switch twice, e.g. -ee and -++, respectively. This is a feature introduced in ezmlm-idx-0.40.
To test a new version of ezmlm-idx or to run several version, make the new version as per INSTALL (if you haven't used ezmlm-idx before) or UPGRADE (if you've got a previous version of ezmlm-idx installed), setting conf-bin to a new directory. You can use either the current directory or any other directory. If not using the current dir, you also have to:
% make install
If you now edit the list using the new ezmlm-make program, the list will automatically be configured to use the new binaries. To change back to the default installation, just edit the list again, this time with the old ezmlm-make(1).
If your system has an /etc/ezmlmrc file, you may need to temporarily place the ezmlmrc(5) file for the ezmlm version you want to test in dotdir of the list and use the ezmlm-make(1) -c switch.
ezmlm-idx>=0.314 comes with ezmlm-test(1), a program that tests most functions of ezmlm-idx and can be used before installation.