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The "mj_shell" tool is for shell (or command line) administrators who
have access to the machine where Majordomo is running. It cannot be
accessed through email or the web, but if you have shell access it
will bypass the delays associated with email. All functionality of
the mj_shell is provided by the email parser. For more information,
send "help admin" to mj2@smoe.org

BEWARE: Using the "-p" option to specify a password will make your
password visible to other shell users, who can issue a command like
"ps -ax" to see your full command line.

The text which follows is simply a copy of the documentation from
the program:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

% pod2text bin/mj_shell


NAME
    mj_shell - Majordomo command line interface

SYNOPSIS
    mj_shell [-D] [-R] [-d domain] [-t topdir] [-p password] [command
    [args]]

DESCRIPTION
    mj_shell provides a command line interface to the Majordomo core
    functionality. It provides both a single command interface, where a
    command is given directly on the command line, and an interface into the
    full text parser, where commands are parsed out of a file. Anything that
    can be done through the email interface can be done through the shell
    interface.

    mj_shell also provides a convenient 'configedit' command that opens an
    editor on a set of config variables and allows them to be edited
    directly. Similarly, the 'get-edit' command will start a text editor
    program to allow a file to be edited and replaced easily.

    If called without a command file, mj_shell will enter an interactive
    mode where you can enter commands and have their results returned
    without rerunning mj_shell.

  Executing single commands

    mj_shell allows the user to execute a single command directly, just by
    placing it and its arguments on the command line:

      mj_shell who mylist
      mj_shell subscribe mylist whoever@example.com

    For a list of supported commands, execute

      mj_shell help topics

  Passwords

    The -p switch specifies that the command should be executed with the
    given password. For general information on how passwords work in
    Majordomo, execute

      mj_shell help admin_passwords

  Command modes

    The specific behavior of most of the commands can be altered through the
    use of command modes. Most commands take the 'noinform' and 'nolog'
    modes, which turn off owner information and logging, respectively. The
    subscribe command takes the 'nowelcome' mode, which prevents the
    introductory welcome message from being sent out to new subscribers.

    To specify one or more modes, separate them from the command with
    hyphens, as follows:

      mj_shell -p pass subscribe-noinform-nowelcome mylist user@example.com

    For information on which commands take which modes, execute

      mj_shell help admin_commands

  Commands taking multiple or array arguments

    Some commands, like subscribe, can take multiple arguments (in this
    case, a list of addresses to subscribe). Others, like configset,
    sometimes take array arguments. These are handled in mj_shell by placing
    the multiline part of the command in a file and specifying the file
    using the -f switch. For example, if 'addr_file' contains a list of
    addresses, one per line, you can do the following:

      mj_shell -p pass -f addr_file subscribe-noinform-nowelcome mylist

    For another example, if the file 'inform_file' contains the following:

      subscribe   : all : ignore
      unsubscribe : all : ignore

    Then

      mj_shell -p pass -f inform_file configset mylist inform

    would set the inform variable such that the list owner would not be
    informed of subscribe and unsubscribe requests. (Execute

      mj_shell help configshow
      mj_shell help configset

    for more information about configuration variables.)

  Executing multiple commands

    For performing more involved tasks, mj_shell gives access to the full
    Majordomo text parser, which is also used to parse commands from the
    body of an email message. Place multiple commands in a file, and pass
    the filename to mj_shell using the -F switch.

    For example, if 'cmd_file' contains the following lines:

      subscribe mylist usera@example.com
      subscribe mylist userb@example.com
      show mylist usera@example.com
      show mylist userb@example.com

    all of the commands can be executed by calling mj_shell as follows:

      mj_shell -p pass -F cmd_file

    The text parser also allows some advanced features. Multiline arguments
    can be specified by a syntax similar to the shell 'here document'
    feature. An example is simpler than a description; you could place the
    following in 'cmd_file':

      subscribe mylist << ENDA
      usera@example.com
      userb@example.com
      ENDA

      show mylist << ENDB
      usera@example.com
      userb@example.com
      ENDB

      configset mylist inform << AAA
      subscribe   : all : ignore
      unsubscribe : all : ignore
      AAA

    to additionally set the 'inform' variable. (In this example the syntax
    is not much shorter, but for longer address lists it can save much
    typing.) The '<<' begins the multiline argument, and must be at the end
    of the command line. The tag must consist of at least three uppercase
    letters, and appears both directly after the '<<' and alone on a line
    after all of the data.

    Multiline arguments can also be included in external files. The external
    files given using one or more -f options on the mj_shell command line,
    and their contents are referenced by placing '<@' followed by a number;
    using '3' would reference the file named by the third -f option. For
    example, if the file 'addrs' contains:

      usera@example.com
      userb@example.com

    'inform' contains:

      subscribe   : all : ignore
      unsubscribe : all : ignore

    and 'commands' contains:

      subscribe mylist <@1
      show mylist <@1
      configset mylist inform <@2

    then the command

      mj_shell -F commands -f addrs -f inform

    would do the same as the previous example.

    In addition, the text parser supports the special 'default' command,
    which sets some default parameter for following commands. The 'default
    list' command (followed by a list name) sets the default list, while the
    'default password' command sets the password. Thus the 'commands' file
    in the previous example can be replaced by:

      default list mylist
      subscribe <@1
      show <@1
      configset inform <@2

    The default list or password can be cleared by using 'default list' or
    'default password' with no list or password.

    In interactive mode, multiline arguments and the 'default delay,'
    'default password,' and 'default user' commands are supported. Use the
    command

      mj_shell help default

    to learn more about the default command.

  The configedit command

    There is one command which is exclusive to mj_shell, the configedit
    command. This enables a list owner to retrieve the values of one or more
    configuration variables, modify them in an editor, and save the new
    values in a single operation.

    Note that the configedit command is not supported on all platforms, but
    can be emulated by the following set of operations:

      mj_shell -p pass configshow list vars > tempfile
      (edit tempfile)
      mj_shell -p pass -F tempfile

  Switches

    Here are all of the command line switches that mj_shell accepts:

    -D  Specifies that full debugging information will be sent to standard
        error.

    -d *domain*
        Specifies the domain of lists to operate on. The default domain is
        chosen at install time; for installations supporting more than one
        domain, this switch must be used to distinguish between them.

    -F *filename*
        Specifies that the text parser will be run on *filename*. All
        non-option arguments on the mj_shell command line will be ignored.

    -f *filename*
        Specifies that the contents of *filename* will be used either as a
        multiline argument for a given command, or for an external argument
        for a '<@' specifier in the text parser.

        More than one -f argument is permitted, though multiple instances
        are only used by the text parser.

        *filename* can also be the string '-', in which case standard input
        is read.

    -l *language*
        Specifies the user's preferred language. This should be in the
        standard two-letter (ISO 639) form, plus subtags as outlined in RFC
        1766. (For example, en for English, de for German, or no-nynorsk for
        Norwegian/Nynorsk.) Case is not significant. Multiple preferences
        can be specified in order by separating them with commas or using
        multiple -l options.

        Note that the server may not have all files available in all
        supported languages. If a file does not exist in the preferred
        language, the other supplied languages are searched in order and
        finally English is used if no other choice is available. In
        conformance with RFC 1766, tags are not considered separately from
        tags, so in the Nynorsk example above, plain Norwegian would not be
        returned unless it was listed as an additional preference.

    -P  Use a pager to display the results. It is also possible to achieve
        this effect in interactive mode with the following command:

          default display pager

    -p *password*
        Specifies a password that a command will be run with, or the default
        password for commands run by the text parser.

    -R  As a debugging aid, specifies that mj_shell should dump the request
        structures sent to the Majordomo library and the result structures
        received from the library.

    -t *directory*
        This specifies the directory which is the top level of the Majordomo
        lists directory structure. This is generally compiled in at
        installation time, but some sites may have different directory
        structures.

    -u *user*
        Specifies the user that commands will run as. Note that this does
        not change the system UID, but only affects the user (really the
        email address) that is passed to the Majordomo core for access
        checking and which is used as the default for certain commands.
        Normally the user is determined from a combination of environment
        variables and the result of the 'hostname' function, but this
        information is not always accurate.

        Please note that this can be used for nefarious purposes, but that
        it does not pose any additional security risk since mail sent to the
        email processor can be trivially forged. List owners are strongly
        urged not to rely on users and email addresses for security, but
        instead to rely on passwords and to enable confirmation on all
        security sensitive commands.

    -Z  Specifies that UID/GID tests will not be done. Normally mj_shell
        will check to make sure that it is running as the user and group
        specified during installation. Failure of this test generally
        indicates an installation error; either the wrappers or the scripts
        themselves shouldf be installed setuid and setgid to the Majordomo
        user and group. Using the -Z option enables mj_shell to run even
        with this misconfiguration, though other operations may fail and
        file ownerships will not be set correctly.

        This option is mainly used by the test scripts, so that they can run
        before the software has been completely installed.

    --aliascomplete
        When running in interactive mode, mj_shell provides for completion
        of Majordomo commands. It does not normally complete command aliases
        (such as 'remove' for 'unsubscribe') but supplying this switch will
        cause it to do so.

    --id
        Forces mj_shell to print out the real and effective user and group
        IDs at the beginning of execution. Used for debugging.

    --noornaments
        When running in interactive mode, mj_shell will use ornamentation to
        spruce up the prompt of the underlying ReadLine library supports it.
        The --noormanemts switch will turn these off.


See Also:
   help admin
   help admin_commands
   help configset
   help configshow
   help default
   
For a list of all help topics send this one-line message
   help topics
to the server at mj2@smoe.org


For assistance, please contact the smoe.org administrators.
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