updating the content for this guide

author: bwarsaw <> 2004-12-14 14:14:32 +0000
committer: bwarsaw <> 2004-12-14 14:14:32 +0000
commit: a3a7b94b04974c40bca54caece474e8506d53822 (patch)
tree: bb447beeccdfa07a18082a99929ea7eb9f85cf9e /admin/www/mailman-admin/node7.html
parent: d497f1c251bff2eae3bce19d183a4bd988fe37e4 (diff)
download: mailman2-a3a7b94b04974c40bca54caece474e8506d53822.tar.gz
mailman2-a3a7b94b04974c40bca54caece474e8506d53822.tar.xz
mailman2-a3a7b94b04974c40bca54caece474e8506d53822.zip
1 files changed, 109 insertions, 91 deletions
diff --git a/admin/www/mailman-admin/node7.html b/admin/www/mailman-admin/node7.html
index 6f4839e8..90d38d0e 100644
--- a/admin/www/mailman-admin/node7.html
+++ b/admin/www/mailman-admin/node7.html
@@ -1,126 +1,144 @@
 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
 <html>
 <head>
-<title>2.3 A List's Web Pages</title>
-<META NAME="description" CONTENT="2.3 A List's Web Pages">
-<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="mailman-admin">
-<META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document">
-<META NAME="distribution" CONTENT="global">
-<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
-<link rel="STYLESHEET" href="mailman-admin.css">
-<link rel="first" href="mailman-admin.html">
-<link rel="contents" href="contents.html" title="Contents">
-
-<LINK REL="next" HREF="node8.html">
-<LINK REL="previous" HREF="node6.html">
-<LINK REL="up" HREF="node4.html">
-<LINK REL="next" HREF="node8.html">
+<link rel="STYLESHEET" href="mailman-admin.css" type='text/css' />
+<link rel="first" href="mailman-admin.html" title='GNU Mailman - List Administration Manual' />
+<link rel='contents' href='contents.html' title="Contents" />
+<link rel='last' href='about.html' title='About this document...' />
+<link rel='help' href='about.html' title='About this document...' />
+<link rel="prev" href="node6.html" />
+<link rel="parent" href="node3.html" />
+<link rel="next" href="node8.html" />
+<meta name='aesop' content='information' />
+<title>1.4 Basic Architectural Overview</title>
 </head>
 <body>
 <DIV CLASS="navigation">
+<div id='top-navigation-panel' xml:id='top-navigation-panel'>
 <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2">
 <tr>
-<td><A HREF="node6.html"><img src="../icons/previous.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="Previous Page" width="32"></A></td>
-<td><A HREF="node4.html"><img src="../icons/up.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="Up One Level" width="32"></A></td>
-<td><A HREF="node8.html"><img src="../icons/next.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="Next Page" width="32"></A></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="1.3 A List's Web"
+  href="node6.html"><img src='previous.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></A></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="1 Introduction to GNU"
+  href="node3.html"><img src='up.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='Up One Level' width='32' /></A></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="2 The List Configuration"
+  href="node8.html"><img src='next.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='Next Page' width='32' /></A></td>
 <td align="center" width="100%">GNU Mailman - List Administration Manual</td>
-<td><A href="contents.html"><img src="../icons/contents.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="Contents" width="32"></A></td>
-<td><img src="../icons/blank.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="" width="32"></td>
-<td><img src="../icons/blank.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="" width="32"></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"
+  href="contents.html"><img src='contents.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='Contents' width='32' /></A></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><img src='blank.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='' width='32' /></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><img src='blank.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='' width='32' /></td>
 </tr></table>
-<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" HREF="node6.html">2.2 Administrative Roles</A>
-<b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" HREF="node4.html">2 Introduction to GNU</A>
-<b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" HREF="node8.html">2.4 Basic Architectural Overview</A>
-<br><hr>
+<div class='online-navigation'>
+<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b>
+<a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="node6.html">1.3 A List's Web</A>
+<b class="navlabel">Up:</b>
+<a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="node3.html">1 Introduction to GNU</A>
+<b class="navlabel">Next:</b>
+<a class="sectref" rel="next" href="node8.html">2 The List Configuration</A>
+</div>
+<hr /></div>
 </DIV>
 <!--End of Navigation Panel-->
 
-<H2><A NAME="SECTION002230000000000000000">
-2.3 A List's Web Pages</A>
+<H2><A NAME="SECTION002140000000000000000">
+1.4 Basic Architectural Overview</A>
 </H2>
 
 <P>
-Every mailing list is also accessible by a number of web pages.  Note
-that the exact urls is configurable by the site administrator, so they
-may be different than what's described below.  We'll describe the most
-common default configuration, but check with your site administrator
-or hosting service for details.
+This section will outline the basic architecture of GNU Mailman, such
+as how messages are processed by the sytem.  Without going into lots
+of detail, this information will help you understand how the
+configuration options control Mailman's functionality.
 
 <P>
-Mailman provides a set of web pages that list members use to get
-information about the list, or manage their membership options.  There
-are also list archive pages, for browsing an online web-based archive
-of the list traffic.  These are described in more detail in the GNU
-Mailman user's manual.
+When mail enters the system from your mail server, it is dropped into
+one of several Mailman <em>queues</em> depending on the address the
+message was sent to.  For example, if your system has a mailing list
+named <var>mylist</var> and your domain is <var>example.com</var>, people can
+post messages to your list by sending them to
+<var>mylist@example.com</var>.  These messages will be dropped into the
+<em>incoming</em> queue, which is also colloquially called the
+<em>moderate-and-munge</em> queue.  The incoming queue is where most of
+the approval process occurs, and it's also where the message is
+prepared for sending out to the list membership.
 
 <P>
-Mailman also provides a set of pages for configuring an individual
-list, as well as a set of pages for disposing of posting and
-subscription requests.
+There are separate queues for the built-in archiver, the bounce
+processor, the email command processor, as well as the outgoing email
+and news queues.  There's also a queue for messages generated by the
+Mailman system.  Each of these queues typically has one <em>queue
+runner</em> (or ``qrunner'') that processes messages in the queue.  The
+qrunners are idle when there are no messages to process.
 
 <P>
-For a mailing list called <var>mylist</var> hosted at the domain
-<var>lists.example.com</var>, you would typically access the administrative
-pages by going to <code>http://lists.example.com/mailman/admin/mylist</code>.
-The first time you visit this page, you will be presented with a login
-page, asking for the list owner's password.  When you enter the
-password, Mailman will store a session cookie in your browser, so you
-don't have to re-authenticate for every action you want to take.  This
-cookie is stored only until you exit your browser.
+Every message in the queues are represented by two files, a message
+file and a metadata file.  Both of these files share the same base
+name, which is a combination of a unique hash and the Unix time that
+the message was received.  The metadata file has a suffix of
+<span class="file">.db</span> and the message file has a suffix of either <span class="file">.msg</span> if
+stored in plain text, or <span class="file">.pck</span> if stored in a more efficient
+internal representation<A NAME="tex2html1"
+  HREF="#foot39"><SUP>1</SUP></A>.
 
 <P>
-To access the administrative requests page, you'd visit
-<code>http://lists.example.com/mailman/admindb/mylist</code> (note the
-<i>admindb</i> url as opposed to the <i>admin</i> url).  Again, the
-first time you visit this page, you'll be presented with a login page,
-on which you can enter either the list moderator password or the list
-owner password.  Again, a session cookie is dropped in your browser.
-Note also that if you've previously logged in as the list owner, you
-do not need to re-login to access the administrative requests page.
+As a message moves through the incoming queue, it performs various
+checks on the message, such as whether it matches one of the
+moderation criteria, or contains disallowed MIME types.  Once a
+message is approved for sending to the list membership, the message is
+prepared for sending by deleting, adding, or changing message headers,
+adding footers, etc.  Messages in the incoming queue may also be
+stored for appending to digests.
 
 <P>
+<BR><HR><H4>Footnotes</H4>
+<DL>
+<DT><A NAME="foot39">... representation</A><A
+ HREF="node7.html#tex2html1"><SUP>1</SUP></A></DT>
+<DD>Specifically, a Python pickle
 
+</DD>
+</DL>
 <DIV CLASS="navigation">
-<p><hr>
+<div class='online-navigation'>
+<p></p><hr />
 <table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2">
 <tr>
-<td><A HREF="node6.html"><img src="../icons/previous.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="Previous Page" width="32"></A></td>
-<td><A HREF="node4.html"><img src="../icons/up.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="Up One Level" width="32"></A></td>
-<td><A HREF="node8.html"><img src="../icons/next.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="Next Page" width="32"></A></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="1.3 A List's Web"
+  href="node6.html"><img src='previous.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></A></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="1 Introduction to GNU"
+  href="node3.html"><img src='up.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='Up One Level' width='32' /></A></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="2 The List Configuration"
+  href="node8.html"><img src='next.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='Next Page' width='32' /></A></td>
 <td align="center" width="100%">GNU Mailman - List Administration Manual</td>
-<td><A href="contents.html"><img src="../icons/contents.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="Contents" width="32"></A></td>
-<td><img src="../icons/blank.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="" width="32"></td>
-<td><img src="../icons/blank.gif"
-  border="0" height="32"
-  alt="" width="32"></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"
+  href="contents.html"><img src='contents.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='Contents' width='32' /></A></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><img src='blank.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='' width='32' /></td>
+<td class='online-navigation'><img src='blank.png'
+  border='0' height='32'  alt='' width='32' /></td>
 </tr></table>
-<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b> <a class="sectref" HREF="node6.html">2.2 Administrative Roles</A>
-<b class="navlabel">Up:</b> <a class="sectref" HREF="node4.html">2 Introduction to GNU</A>
-<b class="navlabel">Next:</b> <a class="sectref" HREF="node8.html">2.4 Basic Architectural Overview</A>
-<hr>
-<span class="release-info">Release 2.1, documentation updated on October 2, 2004.</span>
+<div class='online-navigation'>
+<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b>
+<a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="node6.html">1.3 A List's Web</A>
+<b class="navlabel">Up:</b>
+<a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="node3.html">1 Introduction to GNU</A>
+<b class="navlabel">Next:</b>
+<a class="sectref" rel="next" href="node8.html">2 The List Configuration</A>
+</div>
+</div>
+<hr />
+<span class="release-info">Release 2.1, documentation updated on December 13, 2004.</span>
 </DIV>
 <!--End of Navigation Panel-->
author	bwarsaw <>	2004-12-14 14:14:32 +0000
committer	bwarsaw <>	2004-12-14 14:14:32 +0000
commit	a3a7b94b04974c40bca54caece474e8506d53822 (patch)
tree	bb447beeccdfa07a18082a99929ea7eb9f85cf9e /admin/www/mailman-admin/node7.html
parent	d497f1c251bff2eae3bce19d183a4bd988fe37e4 (diff)
download	mailman2-a3a7b94b04974c40bca54caece474e8506d53822.tar.gz mailman2-a3a7b94b04974c40bca54caece474e8506d53822.tar.xz mailman2-a3a7b94b04974c40bca54caece474e8506d53822.zip