File : readme
Purpose : Introduction to mailing lists and MReply.
Created on : Jan 18, 1994 by Tor Slettnes <tor@netcom.com>
Modified on : Jul 06, 1995 by Tor Slettnes <tor@netcom.com>
Version : 1.75
MReply is copyrighted (C) 1993-1995 by Tor Slettnes.
Program can be distributed freely, but comes without ANY warranty.
Modifications permitted; I'd be happy to hear from you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
====================
General introduction
====================
MReply is a UNIX-based mail processing program, specifically aimed
at maintaining mailing lists or file servers. It is invoked via
the mail .forwarding mechanism, or indirectly with other programs
like 'procmail' or ELM's 'filter'. Built-in features include:
* List maintenance via JOIN/SUBSCRIBE, LEAVE/UNSUBSCRIBE,
CHANGE, WHICH, REVIEW; optional auto-subscription to
lists; open vs. concealed lists.
* File server: SEND or receive plaintext or encoded files;
built-in file type detection, uuencode, uudecode, shar,
splitmail; optional ACCESS codes to prevent unauthorized
submissions.
* Define your own commands in the configuration file, aided by
a number of internal functions, and ability to redirect to or
from external shell commands.
* Automatically separates request mails from regular text
(avoid command mails in mailing list or personal mailbox).
* Filtering/forwarding of mails to mailbox, other addresses,
external pipes, internal commands...
* Multiple site configurations; forward requests for specific
files or mailing lists to other sites, shell commands etc.
* Mail loop detection prevents ringing.
* 'Local mode' lets you give commands interactively on the
command line.
* Highly customizable, yet straightforward configuration syntax;
no root privileges needed.
* Comes with on-line manual, sample configuration file, and
mass-mailer script.
Updates since MReply version 1.60:
* 1.61: Corrected parsing of header fields occupying several lines
* 1.62: Changed parsing of mail where the first word in the first
line of the body ends with ':'.
* 1.63: Added functions $downcase(), $space()
* 1.64: Added functions $trim(), $listfile(), $packetfile()
Changed default variable substitution; is no longer trimmed.
Added statements ".INPUT [filename]" and ".READ [variable]"
A number of minor bug fixes.
* 1.65: Corrected bug; '.message NotInAnyLists' was not listed in
sample config. files and the manual; and MReply did not
give any error response for 'WHICH' commands if not present.
* 1.66: Corrected bug; when attempting to send a file that is
really a directory, it attempted to send multiple files
of zero size, and became a runaway process.
* 1.67: Any listfile associated with ".list" will now preserve its
old permissions, instead of getting a 0644 mode.
* 1.68: Corrected spelling in 'serverinfo' response; removed two
bugs in sample1.mreply.rc; removed 'segmentation fault'
in case of file submissions ("text" or "begin") with no
filename given.
* 1.69: Added variable $MAILTYPE - "PLAIN", "COMMAND" or "FILE".
Corrected ".endif"/".end" bug in sample1.mreply.rc.
Added $HOME/.mailbox/inbox as default mailbox, to accomodate
future Netcom structure.
* 1.70: New options for forwarding: -noheader, -nobody, -nosig, -sig;
Forwarding to -file, -addr, -pipe, -exec, -goto;
New option "-u username" overrides owner of MReply process;
Two new specifications: ".globalInit" and ".commandInit";
The ".input" specification will now also affect ".exec";
Numerical comparison via =, <, >, <=, >=;
Auto-detection of file type (whether to encode or not);
Better X-loop: detection/preservation;
More documentation in sampe1.mreply.rc
* 1.71: Corrected bugs:
".listdir /path/" worked, ".listdir /path" did not.
Now uses 'fcntl()' rather than 'lockf()' or 'flock()', due
to limited availability of the latter on some systems.
Changes:
Increased minSplitSize to 50000 (from 10000); makes abuse
(mailbombing a third party) more difficult.
Updated 'serverinfo' response to reflect new
MReply-Request service.
A backslash in the end of a config. line no longer inserts
a newline character, use "\n\" to do so.
"$header(Field:)" now includes the trailing newline char.
* 1.72: Corrected bugs:
File locking was attempted on error log file, sometimes
causing a new error, and looping until maximum number of
system locks were reached. Removed; also removed locking
on filenames starting with "/dev/".
Changes:
Added ".alias" (Usage: ".alias alias-name command")
Added ".process" (Usage: ".process command args")
Added option "-t to-address"
Removed ".site", ".server", "$SITEID",
".message IllegalSite", etc.
* 1.73: Memory leak in "setEnv()" removed.
* 1.74: Bug in ".if" parsing fixed. Complicated; details available
upon request.
* 1.75: Bug fixes:
Finally gave up on trying to manipulate **environ manually;
using putenv() instead. (Needs support from library).
A ".forwardAll" could cause "Invalid argument" errors to
malloc() -- Corrected.
RC files had ".message NotInAnyLists". Correct spelling
is "NotInAnyList".
MReply is built under SunOS 4.1.3, but is also known to compile under
most other Unix versions. If you encounter problems during compilation
on your OS, please let me know what they were; and if you managed
to get around them, how.
The files included are:
mreply.c
Source code, to be compiled with 'gcc':
gcc -O2 mreply.c -o ~/bin/mreply
mreply.n
The manual page for MReply. If you have root privileges,
store this file as /usr/man/mann/mreply.n; otherwise,
store it as e.g. $HOME/man/mann/mreply.n, and set the
environment variable MANPATH to "/usr/man:$HOME/man".
sample1.mreply.rc
A sample configuration file for MReply. Fairly basic,
but contains extensive documentation. Good starting point.
sample2.mreply.rc
The configuration file I use now. A bit more complicated.
Includes:
- Service for 'ftp-request', 'notgnu-request',
'notgnu-list', 'mreply-request', 'mreply-list',
and personal mails to me.
- Various extra commands: INDEX, DIR and LS
msend
A shell script that can be used to mail to multiple persons
in a list. Can e.g. be used to redistribute mails that have
been intercepted by MReply, or to send mail to a moderated
type of list.
=================
Setting up MReply
=================
To be able to give MReply the first quick test, first create the
following .forward file in your HOME directory:
File: $HOME/.forward
--------------------------------------------------------------
"|exec /path/mreply #your_login_name"
--------------------------------------------------------------
The double quotes are important. The part about #your_login_name
_can_ be omitted; however a bug in 'sendmail' causes mail sent to
several people with the same .forward file to be forwarded to only
one of these.
Now, if you send mail to yourself, this mail will be piped to
MReply. MReply will in turn look for its configuration file;
since this one does not exist yet, it will forward the mail to
/usr/spool/mail/your_login_name or /usr/mail/your_login_name,
whichever is available. (If neither, it will store the mail in
/your/home/dir/mbox). You should then be able to read it via your
regular mail reader.
Now, copy the sample.mreply.rc file to $HOME/.mreply.rc. All file
declarations inside it are (most likely! :-) illegal, so any kind
of command mail will produce a "Server error" mail; but regular
non-command mail should still be forwarded as if nothing had
happened.
Once you have this working, you can start editing .mreply.rc to
suit your personal needs and preferences. Try, fail, try more,
and so on. Be sure to read the included manual page; it does
contain more detailed description of MReply's features.
=======================
Setting up mail aliases
=======================
Any decent mailing service has its own email address. Well, almost
any; some good exceptions exist. :-)
To obtain an address for your service, you should have your system
administrator set up mailing aliases for you in the global
'aliases' file. (Netcom users: "system administrator" means
netmail@netcom.com). If you are maintaining a mailing list, a
common set of aliases would be similar to:
your-list: :include:/path/your-subscriber-list
your-list-request: your_login_name
owner-your-list: your_login_name
The first alias causes ALL mail sent to your-list to be
redistributed to every person on the list, without any kind of
moderation; the other two causes mail sent to these aliases to be
forwarded to your personal mailbox.
If you want to auto-moderate the list, for instance by filtering
out request mail (i.e. mail containing commands such as SEND or
SUBSCRIBE) or mail sent by someone not in the mailing list,
you may want the following ones instead:
your-list: your_login_name
your-list-request: your_login_name
owner-your-list: your_login_name
The difference being that the `your-list' alias forwards mail to
you (i.e. MReply) rather than to the entire list directly. If you
already have the :include: type alias mentioned before, no
worries. You can still have the mail forwarded to your mailbox
first: Include only your own name in the list file associated
with the alias, then use another file (e.g. in your home
directory) as the REAL subscriber list file.
If you plan to perform such auto-moderation, you should eventually
have a .mreply.rc similar to sample1.mreply.rc; this one contains
some examples of mail filtering. One important line from this file
is the following one:
File: $HOME/.mreply.rc (extract):
--------------------------------------------------------------
.forward | $HOME/bin/msend -q $HOME/lists/your-subscriber-list
--------------------------------------------------------------
This will forward any "regular" (non-command) mail msend,
which in turn will mail it out to every address in the list file
$HOME/lists/your-subscriber-list. When the mail comes back to
MReply the second time (if your own address is in the list),
it will be forwarded to your regular inbox in /usr/spool/mail/$USER
unless a .loopedforward domain is specified.
=======
Testing
=======
While you are configuring your system, be sure to test it with
only very few addresses in your list, and notify these people in
advance. (If you have an alternative e-mail address available, the
better). Also be sure to test with both a "regular" mail and a
"request" mail for each mailing alias or condition, where
appropriate.
You can also use MReply to manually perform list maintenance or
send files; use the following syntax:
mreply "Real Name <user@host.domain>"
mreply "user@host.domain (Real Name)"
mreply user@host.domain
You will then be given an interactive prompt, and can give SEND,
JOIN/SUBSCRIBE etc. commands, as if they were sent via e-mail.
I'm sure there are lots of things I forgot here. Feel free to
contact me with any kind of questions, comments etc. you may have.
============
Miscellanous
============
To automatically receive information on new updates in the future,
please send a mail to <mreply-request@netcom.com> containing the
following message body:
SUBSCRIBE MREPLY-UPDATES
To participate in the newly started MReply-List, give the command:
SUBSCRIBE MREPLY-LIST
For more information, demo's & such, send a HELP request to
<ftp-request@netcom.com>, <notgnu-request@netcom.com>,
<mreply-request@netcom.com> or <tor@netcom.com>.
Good luck!
Tor Slettnes
<tor@connectus.com>
July 06, 1995
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