This document uses a number of terms. Here are the meanings ascribed
to them by the authors.
‘DIR’
The base directory of the list.
‘SENDER’
The envelope sender of the message, as passed to ezmlm by qmail via
the $SENDER environment variable.
‘LOCAL’
The local part of the envelope recipient. For ‘list-get-1@host’,
it is usually ‘list-get-1’. If host is a virtual domain,
controlled by ‘user-sub’, then local would be
‘user-sub-list-get-1’.
‘moddir’
Base directory for moderators. Moderator email addresses are stored
in a hashed database in moddir/subscribers/. By default,
‘moddir’ is DIR/mod/.
To add or remove moderators:
% ezmlm-sub DIR mod moderator@host.domain
% ezmlm-unsub DIR mod moderator@host.domain
‘dotdir’
The second argument of ezmlm-make is the main .qmail file for the
list. dotdir is the directory in which this “dot file” resides,
i.e. the directory part of the ‘dot’ argument. This is usually
the home directory of the user controlling the list (but NOT
necessarily of the one creating the list). Thus, “dotdir” is
~alias/ if ‘root’ creates a list:
The directory where the ezmlm-binaries are normally stored, as defined
at compile time in conf-bin. This is compiled into the
programs and does not change just because you have moved the program.
This is a reference to the ezmlm-get.1 man page. Access it with one
of the following:
% man ezmlm-get
% man 1 ezmlm-get
or if you have not yet installed ezmlm-idx (replace ‘x.y.z’ with
the version number):
% cd ezmlm-idx-x.y.z
% man ./ezmlm-get.1
‘basedir’
The list directory when referencing the list subscriber address
database. For email addresses stored in a set of files within
DIR/subscribers/, the “basedir” is DIR.
‘address database’
A collection of email addresses stored in a set of files within the
subscribers subdirectory of the basedir,
DIR/subscribers/.
‘message moderator’
An address to which moderation requests for posts to the list are
sent. The moderation requests are formatted with
‘From:’-‘reject’ and a ‘To:’-‘accept’ default
headers for moderator replies. A reply to the “reject” address leads
to the rejection of the post. A reply to the “accept” address leads
to the acceptance of the post. Any email address can be a moderator
email address. Any number of moderator email addresses can be
used. If a post is sent from a moderator email address, the
moderation request is sent to that email address only. If a post is
sent from an email address that is not a moderator, a moderation
request is sent to all moderators.
The first reply to the moderation request determines the fate of the
message. Further requests for the action already taken are silently
ignored, while a request for the contrary action results in an error
message stating the actual fate of the message. Thus, if you want to
“accept” the message and it has already been accepted, you receive
no reply, but if you attempt to “reject” it, you will receive an
error message stating that the message already has been accepted.
Most lists are not message moderated. If they are, the owner is
usually a “message moderator”, sometimes together with a few other
trusted users.
For an announcement list, it is common to make all the “official
announcers” “message moderators”. This way, they can post
securely and “accept” their own posts, while posts from other
users will be sent to this set of “official announcers” for
approval.
‘subscription moderator’
An email address where subscription moderation requests are sent. A
subscription moderation request is sent after a user has confirmed her
intention to subscribe. The subscription moderation request is sent to
all moderators. As soon as a reply to this message is received, the
user is subscribed and notified. Any email address can be a
subscription moderator and any number of subscription moderators can
be used.
Unsubscribe requests are never moderated (except when the
ezmlm-manage(1)-U flag is used
and the sender attempts to remove an address other than the one s/he
is sending from). It is hard to imagine a legitimate mailing list that
would want to prevent unsubscriptions.
‘remote administrator’
When a remote administrator subscribes or unsubscribes a list member,
the “confirm” request is sent back to the remote administrator,
rather than to the subscriber's email address. This allows the remote
administrator to (un)subscribe any list member without the cooperation
of the subscriber at that address. Any email address can be a remote
administrator and any number of email addresses can be remote
administrators.
The set of email addresses that are “remote administrators” and
“subscription moderators” are always the same. This set of email
addresses can be “remote administrators”, “subscription
moderators” or both.
For most lists, the owner would be the “remote administrator”, if
s/he wishes to moderate messages, the owner would be the “message
moderator” and if s/he wishes to moderate subscriptions the owner
would also be the “subscription moderator”.
The list's “message moderator(s)” can be the same, but can also be
set up to be completely different.
‘Changing list ``ownership''’
Within this FAQ there are references to the need to check or change
the list “ownership”. This is not a reference to the individual user
who is the “list-owner”, but a reference to the ownership of the
files by your operating system which make up the list and reside in
DIR/.
To change the ownership of DIR/ and everything within:
% chown -R user DIR
% chgrp -R group DIR
Depending on your system/shell, it may be possible to combine these
commands into either:
% chown -R user.group DIR
% chown -R user:group DIR