🚀 go-pugleaf

Michael Bruck <mike@mipos3.UUCP> asks:

	I am setting up a mailing list for use within Intel and am
	wondering if there is a specific way it is done with the
	ARPA/usenet based lists.  For starters, I plan on setting up an
	account with the .forward file containing the list of
	recipients.  Is there a better way to do this?  One problem I
	see with my method is messages getting bounced back to the
	poster for every wrong address in the list.

Ok, here's a quick look at maintaining mailing lists.  You don't need
to make an account with a .forward file.  Just use /usr/lib/aliases ...

Suppose the name of the list is to be called froo_froo ... here's
afew lines that I would put in:

----- cut here -----
#
# The Froo_Froo list, maintained by Jordan Hayes <jordan>
#
froo_froo: :include:/a/staff/jordan/lists/froo_froo
froo_froo-request: jordan
owner-froo_froo: froo_froo-request
froo-froo: froo_froo
----- cut here -----

The run the program

% newaliases

Which will rebuild the hashed DBM files for the system aliases.

The first line says that there is a list of addresses in the file
~jordan/lists/froo_froo ... :include:'ing them means that when the list
changes, there's no need to rebuild the alias file -- this is also good
for system managers who want to let lowly users manage their own lists
but don't want to give them write permission on /usr/lib/aliases.

The second line is a convention for how to contact the maintainer of
the mailing list -- i.e., tcp-ip-request is the mailbox of the owner
of the tcp-ip mailing list, etc.

The third line says that all local errors generated by sendmail will
go to the list maintainer instead of the list.

The fourth line is for lazy typists, as many will attempt a '_' 
as a '-' ... sprinkle as needed.

That should do it.

Good luck ...

/jordan