path: root/README

Mailman - The GNU Mailing List Management System
Copyright (C) 1998,1999,2000,2001 by the Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA

INTRODUCTION

    This is GNU Mailman, a mailing list management system distributed
    under the GNU Public License (GPL).  The name of this project is
    spelled "Mailman" with a leading capital `M' but with a lower case
    second `m'.

    Mailman is written primarily in Python, a free object-oriented
    scripting language.  There is some ANSI C code for security
    purposes.

    Mailman was originally developed by John Viega.  Subsequent
    development (through version 1.0b3) was by Ken Manheimer.  Further
    work towards the 1.0 final release was a group effort, with the
    core contributors being: Barry Warsaw, Ken Manheimer, Scott
    Cotton, Harald Meland, and John Viega.  Version 1.0 and beyond
    have been primarily maintained by Barry Warsaw with contributions
    from many; see the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS file for details.  Jeremy
    Hylton has helped considerably with the Pipermail code in Mailman
    2.0.

    The Mailman home page is

        http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman

    with mirrors at

        http://www.list.org
        http://mailman.sf.net

    Mailman requires Python 2.0 or greater, which can be downloaded
    from

        http://www.python.org

    Note that in order to comply with the GPL, it is recommended that
    you use Python 2.0.1.  Python 2.1.1 and Python 2.2 will also be
    GPL-compatible, but they have not yet been released as of this
    writing (09-Jul-2001).  Mailman will work with any Python 2.x
    version.

    You will also need an ANSI C compiler; gcc (the GNU C compiler)
    works just fine.  Mailman currently works only on GNU/Linux and
    other Unix-like operating systems (e.g. Solaris, *BSD, etc.).  It
    does not run on Windows, although web and mail clients on any
    platform should be able to interact with Mailman just fine.

    See the INSTALL file for installation instructions.  If you are
    upgrading from a previous version of Mailman, you need to read the
    UPGRADING file for important information.


FEATURES

    Read the NEWS file for a list of changes since version 0.9.  Read
    the TODO file for our (extensive) wish list.  You can see Mailman
    in action at

        http://www.python.org/mailman/listinfo

    Mailman has most of the standard features you'd expect in a
    mailing list manager, and more:

    - Web based list administration for nearly all tasks.  Web based
      subscriptions and user configuration management.  A customizable
      "home page" for each mailing list.

    - Privacy features such as moderation, open and closed list
      subscription policies, and private membership rosters.

    - Automatic web based archiving built-in with support for private
      and public archives, and hooks for external archivers.

    - Per-user configuration optional digest delivery for either
      MIME-compliant or RFC 1153 style "plain text" digests.

    - Integrated mail/Usenet gateways.

    - Integrated auto-replies.

    - Majordomo-style email based commands.

    - Integrated bounce detection within an extensible framework.

    - Integrated spam detection.

    - An extensible mail delivery pipeline.

    - Support for virtual domains.


REQUIREMENTS

    The default mail delivery mechanism uses a direct SMTP connection
    to whatever mail transport agent you have running on port 25.  You
    can thus use Mailman with any such MTA, however with certain MTAs
    (e.g. Exim and Postfix), Mailman will support thru-the-web
    creation and removal of mailing lists.  You can also configure
    Mailman to submit messages to your MTA via command line
    invocation, although there are security considerations in going
    that route.

    Mailman works with any web server that supports CGI/1.1.  The HTML
    it generates is quite pedestrian and stingy on the graphics so it
    should be friendly to most web browsers and network connections.
    It is regularly tested with IE 5.5, Netscape 4.7x, and Mozilla
    0.9.x on Windows and Netscape 4.7x and Mozilla 0.9.x on Linux (and
    occasionally Lynx on Linux and Netscape on MacOS too!).

    You will need root access on the machine hosting your Mailman
    installation in order to complete some of the configuration
    steps.  See the INSTALL file for details.

    Mailman's web and email user interface should be compatible with
    just about any mail reader or web browser.  You do not need Java,
    JavaScript, or any other fancy plugins.


CREATE YOUR FIRST LIST

    These instructions assume that you've installed and configured
    Mailman according to the instructions in the INSTALL file.  To
    create and test your first list, try the following:

    - First, initialize the site administrator's password by cd'ing to
      the install directory (by default /usr/local/mailman) and typing

      % bin/mmsitepass
      New site password: [yourpassword]
      Again to confirm password: [yourpassword]
      Password changed.

    - Visit the url

        http://my.dom.ain/mailman/create

      Fill out the form as described in the on-screen instructions, and
      in the "List creator's password" field, type the password you
      entered above.  Type your own email address for the "Initial
      list owner address", and select "Yes" to notify the list
      administrator.

    - Hit "Create List"

    - Check your email for a message from Mailman informing you that
      your new mailing list was created.

    - NOTE: If you are using an MTA other than Exim or Postfix
      (e.g. Sendmail or Qmail), then you'll need to do the extra step
      of installing the mailing list aliases manually.  Follow the
      instructions in an email message that you should have received
      (you'll need to know how to do this for your particular MTA, see
      the README for your MTA for more information).

    - Now visit the list's admin page (either by following the link on
      the web page or entering the link from the email Mailman just
      sent you).  Type in the list's password and click on "Let me in..."
    
    - Click on "Membership Management" and then on "Mass Subscription".

    - Enter your email address in the big text field, and click on
      "Submit Your Changes"

    - Now go to your email and send a message to yourlist@my.dom.ain.
      Within a minute or two you should see your message reflected
      back to you via Mailman.

    Congratulations!  You've just set up and tested your first Mailman
    mailing list.  If you had any problems along the way, please see
    the section below on FOR MORE INFORMATION.


FOR MORE INFORMATION

    The online documentation can be found in

        file:admin/www/index.html

    in the directory in which you unpacked Mailman.

    Chris Kolar has made a list owner-oriented manual available from
    the following URL

        http://www.aurora.edu/~ckolar/mailman/

    There are also several mailing lists that can be used as resources
    to help you get going with Mailman.

    Mailman-Announce
        A read-only list for release announcements an other important
        news.

        http://www.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-announce

    Mailman-Users
        An open list for users of Mailman, for posting questions or
        problems related to installation, use, etc.  We'll try to keep
        the deep technical discussions off this list.

        http://www.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users

    Mailman-Developers
        An open list for those of you interested in helping develop
        Mailman's future direction.  This list will contain in-depth
        technical discussions.

    Mailman-I18N
        An open list for the discussion of the Mailman
        internationalization effort.  Mailman 2.1 will be fully
        multi-lingual.

    Mailman-Checkins
        A read-only list which is an adjunct to the public anonymous
        CVS repository.  You can stay on the bleeding edge of Mailman
        development by subscribing to this list.

    The Mailman project is coordinated on SourceForge at

        http://sf.net/projects/mailman

    You should use SourceForge to report bugs and to upload patches.



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