path: root/README

Mailman - The GNU Mailing List Management System
Copyright (C) 1998,1999,2000,2001,2002 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 terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).  The name
    of this software is spelled "Mailman" with a leading capital `M'
    but with a lower case second `m'.  Any other spelling is
    incorrect.

    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 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 2.1 requires Python 2.1.3 or greater, which can be
    downloaded from

        http://www.python.org

    It is recommended that you use Python 2.1.3 or Python 2.2.1, the
    latest releases as of this writing.  Mailman 2.1 is not compatible
    with Python 2.0 or any earlier version.

    You will also need an ANSI C compiler to build both Python and
    Mailman; 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, MacOSX, 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
    2.1 in action at

        http://mail.python.org/mailman-21/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, private membership rosters, and
      sender-based filters.

    - 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, and MIME-based content filtering.

    - 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.

    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 on
    Windows and Netscape 4.7x and Mozilla on Linux (and occasionally
    Lynx on Linux and Netscape and Mozilla 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, although a mail reader
    that is MIME aware will be a big help.  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).  Typically the url will be something like

        http://my.dom.ain/mailman/admin/mysitelist

      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.imsa.edu/~ckolar/mailman/

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

    Mailman-Users
        An 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://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users

    Listowners
        This mailing list with a non-technical focus, specifically for
        discussions from the perspective of listowners and moderators
        who do not have "shell access" to the mailing list server
        where the Mailman software runs.

        http://listowner.org

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

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

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

        http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-developers

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

        http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-i18n

    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.

        http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-checkins

    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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