As far as running the a web server is concerned, You don't have to, but that's the GUI list administration and user interface. No web server -> no GUI for even these functions.
I've figured that out, and I can certainly see why it makes sense when the list administrator is not directly on the machine that hosts mailman, but it seems like it would be useful to have an alternative of running a python GUI that does the same thing without having to run the web server when the use for it is so limited. Just a suggested item for the to-do list.
But how does one launch that list admin GUI?
Through the web interface. It's a bunch of Python scripts that interface with the web server through CGI.
But what is the URL for that? In the /etc/httpd/conf.d/mailman.conf file it says:
# Uncomment the following line, replacing www.example.com with your server's # name, to redirect queries to /mailman to the listinfo page (recommended).
# RedirectMatch ^/mailman[/]*$ http://www.example.com/mailman/listinfo
Is the last line supposed to be
RedirectMatch ^/mailman[/]*$ http://localhost.localdomain/mailman/listinfo
or
RedirectMatch ^/mailman[/]*$ http://localhost.localdomain/var/mailman/listinfo
or what?
In the README file it says:
- Visit the url:
http://my.dom.ain/mailman/create
Is that last line supposed to be
http://localhost.localdomain/var/mailman/create
since the installation directory is /var/mailman?
Lists have names e.g. mailman-users or whatever, but they aren't accounts. You would post to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and it would be up to your MTA (via aliases or in the case of Exim, other means) to pass this to Mailman.
It is not clear how to set up the MTA. sendmail is running by default, so I might as well use that, but it is not obvious how to make mailman work with it. Is there some more newbie-friendly how-to for it, such as buried somewhere in the email archive? I have been searching and not found anything so far.
Yours is a highly unusual use of Mailman. Most installations would want full time service and full time web access.
So may mine eventually. But I want to take small steps to that, proceeding as I learn and my needs grow. Right now the first step is just to be able to send press releases to several hundred news organizations. Later, I want to be able to do mailmerge things, like sending subscription renewal notices or bills with the amounts due from each recipient, who would be individually addressed in the body by "Dear <membername>: You owe us $<nn.nn>." Does Mailman support mailmerge?
I reiterate my original suggestion: that the developers offer beginning users a much easier way to set up mailman, a python GUI that configures all files, launches and tests the web server (if needed at all), launches the mailman daemon, enables one to set up the site, including setting up any cron jobs, and interfaces to the MTA, and then allows one to create and administer lists. That doesn't seem unreasonable. I suspect it would go a long way to advancing the cause of free open source and Linux.
When I was younger and less pressed financially, I could luxuriate in programming for the sheer fun of it. I still have the urge and the ability to do that, but now feel I'm in a race to get as much done as possible before the final shutdown, and can no longer afford the time. Age might be leisurely for some, but for me it is frenetic. Being the head of the Constitution Society, and having so many desperate people coming to me with tales of injustice, is pressure I feel intensely.
-- Jon
---------------------------------------------------------------- Starflight Corporation 7793 Burnet Road #37, Austin, TX 78757 512/374-9585 www.the-spa.com/jon.roland/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get your free digital certificate from http://www.thawte.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ Mailman-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users Mailman FAQ: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/
