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diff --git a/contrib/README.mm-handler b/contrib/README.mm-handler deleted file mode 100644 index 3c4864a7b..000000000 --- a/contrib/README.mm-handler +++ /dev/null @@ -1,215 +0,0 @@ -Contributed by David Champion <dgc@uchicago.edu> -See also ../README.SENDMAIL - -What? ------ -Mm-handler is a mail delivery agent (MDA) -- a "mailer", in Sendmail -lingo. Its function is to assume authority for messages destined to -Mailman lists, so that they're off sendmail's hands, and you (the site -administrator) don't need to maintain databases of aliases and such. It -takes a small bit of work to set up, but once that's done, you'll never -need to mess with aliases for Mailman's sake again. - -When? ------ -The only further catch is that mm-handler is only really useful when -it mostly "owns" its mail domain (the hostname part after an e-mail -address's "@" symbol) -- when you can dedicate the mail domain to -Mailman. If you have a limited set of exceptions -- a few users, for -example -- you can still use it, but for sites with a dynamic or even -mix of users (or forwarders) and lists, it might not gain you much. - -How do you know whether mm-handler is appropriate for you? Let's look -at some examples. If you're running lists off your primary DNS domain -name, you probably have a mix of lists and users in your namespace. Take -python.org, for example: it hosts Mailman lists, and it hosts users' -personal accounts. There aren't a whole bunch of either, but the ratio -is probably fairly near 1:1. Mm-handler is not very useful here, because -there's no simple way to separate user addresses from list addresses -- -not to mention that mm-handler is written in perl, so that's just bad -form. - -This begs two different, complementary situations. A hypothetical -domain, incidents.int, is used mostly for mailing lists. It's a -front-end site, and not a general user mail service. There might be -a couple of user addresses -- system administrators and such -- but -these are few in number and easily adjusted manually by the site -administrator. The 250 mailing lists at the site are much more dynamic, -and a much bigger pain to keep track of by editing an alias file. This -site can easily benefit from mm-handler. - -Inversely, mail.aero, another hypothetical domain, provides POP mail -service to employees of the aerospace industry. Its addresses are -almost entirely users, although it maintains a few mailing lists for -convenience. This site has nothing to gain from mm-handler. It's much -easier to maintain an alias file of 10 lists than to dedicate the domain -to Mailman, and put all 10,000 aerospace workers in a user table. - -Those are the trickier cases. The case where mm-handler really works -best is when you can dedicate a single hostname under your DNS domain -to mailing lists, and host no user accounts there. At the University of -Chicago, we do this with listhost.uchicago.edu. SourceForge does this, -too, although I don't believe they use Sendmail. - -If your site is like that, you should read on. - -How? ----- -Set-up isn't all that complicated. I've included a file here called -"mailman.mc". This is the m4 file that I use on my list server, and you -can likely use it with few changes at your site. It's well-annotated; -the rationale for each parameter (or set of parameters) is provided in -m4 (ahem) comments. - -So, the simple steps are as follows: - -1. Copy mailman.mc, and make any changes you need at your site. You - DEFINITELY need some changes. There are hostnames in there that you - need to adjust, and chances are that you'll need to change some other - parameters (like the host OS), too. [1] - -2. Install mm-handler. Because my server's sendmail-related files live - in /etc/mail, I keep mm-handler there, too. YMMV. - -3. Edit mm-handler, and make any changes you need at your site. You - probably want to change $MMWRAPPER and $MMLISTDIR at line 14, and you - *might* want to take a look at the helpful boilerplate text beginning - at line 64. (This text is sent whenever someone tries to send mail to - a nonexistent list address on your mail domain.) - -4. You should set up a virtusertable. (See mailman.mc for an - explanation.) There's an example of a good, minimal virtusertable - in this distribution. The virtusertable begins as a text file named - "virtusertable", stored in the same directory as all the other - Sendmail files, but it's converted to a map file for Sendmail's use. - Install the virtusertable, and (re)make the map file. [2] - -5. You absolutely must have a mailertable, or all of this goes nowhere. - Like virtusertable, the mailertable is a map that begins as text and - gets converted. It's named "mailertable", and it's probably pretty - simple. Mine looks like this: - - listtest.uchicago.edu mailman:listtest.uchicago.edu - - This says: assign all incoming mail (that was not intercepted by the - virtusertable) and that is in the listtest.uchicago.edu domain to the - "mailman" mailer, and tell the "mailman" mailer that the hostname - we're using is "listtest.uchicago.edu". You can support multiple - virtual hosts using mm-handler just by placing corresponding lines in - mailertable. - - Be sure to make this map, too! - -6. The mailer definition (see the end of mailman.mc, or your own .mc - file) for mm-handler sets the user/group that mm-handler will run - under. (I use mailman:other.) Be sure that mm-handler is executable - by this user or group. You almost certainly need the user to be the - same as the Mailman user, and this user is almost always called - "mailman", so you probably shouldn't change the defaults. - -7. Generate your new sendmail.cf file. See the sendmail documentation if - you're not familiar with this procedure. [1] - -8. Stop sendmail on your list server, if you haven't already. Install - the new sendmail.cf file wherever your sendmail.cf file belongs. - (This depends on how sendmail was compiled, but most systems support - using /etc/sendmail.cf.) - -9. Cross your fingers and restart sendmail. - -A. Barry warns that Mailman now needs you to modify your - Mailman/mm_cfg.py file, adding this line: - - MTA = None - - This tells Mailman that it doesn't need to do anything special when - it creates or deletes mailing lists through the web. For more - information, take a look at the comments for this variable in your - Defaults.py file (but never edit this file -- always edit mm_cfg.py - instead!). - -That's it! With any luck, you're fully functional. - --- -[1] The .mc file is the standard, supported way of configuring sendmail. - I'm not going to get into this here, and I'm not going to tell - you how to write raw sendmail.cf stuff, because if you need to do - it this way then you need something more comprehensive than I can - provide. If you need help with the .mc -> .cf process, I recommend - these links: - - http://www.sendmail.org/~ca/email/setup1.html - http://www.sendmail.org/~ca/email/doc8.9/README.cf.html - http://www.hserus.net/sendmail.html - -[2] This is often done with something like "makemap hash - /etc/virtusertable </etc/virtusertable", but it could be different - on your server. Consult the sendmail documentation if you do not - know. - - -The following note is provided by Kevin McNamee <kevin.mcnamee(at)symsoft.se> -regarding solving a problem with mail to list addresses being rejected for -"user unknown". Reference: -<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2006-February/049235.html> - - -"User unknown" analysis -======================= -If the "user unknown" problem arises, then sendmail is not -recognising your domain as a "mailman" domain. -The problem could be that your mailman.mydomain.com is defined as a -CNAME not a real DNS record. - -A hint from a tutorial about Masquerading: -http://www.feep.net/sendmail/tutorial/config/masquerading.html -"This address must be an address record in DNS, not simply -a CNAME, or the remote end will canonicalize the address back -to the original name." - -First confirm the problem -# sendmail -bv testlist<at>mailman.mydomain.com -testlist<at>mailman.mydomain.com... User unknown - -Then confirm that mailertable is operational -# sendmail -d -bv jbloggs<at>hotmail.com | egrep "map_rewrite|mailertable" -map_lookup(host, hotmail.com) => host_map_lookup(hotmail.com) => -map_rewrite(hotmail.com), av = -map_rewrite => hotmail.com. -map_lookup(mailertable, hotmail.com) => NOT FOUND (0) -map_lookup(mailertable, .com) => NOT FOUND (0) -map_lookup(mailertable, .) => NOT FOUND (0) - -Then confirm that your domain (CNAME) is being canonicalised: -# sendmail -d -bv testlist<at>mailman.mydomain.com | egrep -"map_rewrite|mailertable" -map_lookup(host, mailman.mydomain.com) => -host_map_lookup(mailman.mydomain.com) => map_rewrite(aserver.mydomain.com), -av = -map_rewrite => aserver.mydomain.com. - -Sendmail has done an nslookup and found the real name of your domain which -would not match your settings in mailertable (if sendmail got that far). - -If you remove the CNAME and create a real subdomain, then the problem will -go away: -# sendmail -bv testlist<at>mailman.mydomain.com -testlist<at>mailman.mydomain.com... deliverable: mailer mailman, host -testlist<at>mailman.mydomain.com, user testlist - -You will still need to create a new CNAME in your sub-domain for Apache to -work. - -Conclusion: -It is very important to make clear in the Mailman installation instructions -that a REAL subdomain is needed. Those of us not familiar with DNS (or -sendmail for that matter) can succeed in getting the whole Mailman -installation working including the (Apache) web-interface and subscription -management using just a CNAME and then wonder why we cannot send mail to our -list. Hope this is of use. - -Ed. note: the above "conclusion" applies in this mm-handler case, but it -normally does not apply if list mail is delivered via aliases. - --- -$Id: README.mm-handler 7780 2006-02-20 03:33:19Z msapiro $ |