smoe.org mailing lists

                          Managing Virtual Domains

Each Majordomo installation is capable of supporting one or many virtual
domains.  Each domain, likewise, is capable of supporting one or many
electronic mailing lists.  In an attempt to make management easier, some
characteristics are shared by all of the mailing lists within a domain.
However, there is at present no sharing between different domains at the
same site.

There are two ways to add virtual domains.  The first way is to
reinstall the software entirely, answering the questions about each
virtual domain that the site manager wishes to support.  The second way
is to run the "make domain" shell command from the Majordomo source
directory.

Each domain has two special pseudo-lists, GLOBAL and DEFAULT.  

The GLOBAL pseudo-list is used to manage Majordomo commands which are
not specific to any one mailing list.   These commands include accept,
alias, changeaddr, createlist, password, register, reject, rekey,
sessioninfo, show, tokeninfo, unalias, unregister, and which.  

The DEFAULT pseudo-list is used to provide default configuration
settings to all of the mailing lists except the GLOBAL pseudo-list.
When Majordomo attempts to determine the current value of a
configuration setting for a mailing list, it first checks the table of
settings for the list itself.  This table will only contain values if
the list owners have explicitly added them with the configset command.
In contrast, the configdef command is used to remove values from the
table.  If a configuration setting has no entry in the list's table, the
DEFAULT list is checked next.  If the setting has no entry in table for
the DEFAULT list, the installation values are used.  For regular lists,
the installation values are supplied by the DEFAULT:_install
configuration settings.  For the GLOBAL pseudo-list, installation values
are supplied by the GLOBAL:_install settings.  It is possible to change
the installation defaults, but any changes will be lost when you upgrade
the software.

The DEFAULT list is valuable because it allows you to change the
settings of all of the mailing lists within a domain at once.  It has
been suggested that one DEFAULT list is not enough.  If your site has
two or more basic styles of mailing list (discussion lists and
announcement lists, for example) for which you would like to provide
default settings, it would be helpful to choose which set of default
values to use for each list.  Unfortunately, this has not yet been
implemented.

The most important use of the DEFAULT list is to configure each domain
to supply at least one digest to each mailing list, using the "digests"
configuration setting.  Majordomo does not define any digests by default
(see "help configset_digests" for more details).

The DEFAULT list can also be used to make files available to all of the
mailing lists within a domain.  See "help configset_file_share" and
"help get" for more details.  There is also a Stock directory for files
that are supplied by Majordomo, like this help file.  These files can be
obtained using the get command, and replaced using the put command;
however, there is no way to overwrite the files in the Stock directory.
If you use the get and put commands to edit and improve the files, your
changes will be saved in the file space for one list.  Even DEFAULT
files are only available to lists within one domain at a site.  If you
wish to make changes to Stock files that affect all domains, you will
need to edit the files in the Majordomo source distribution and
reinstall the software.

Each domain has several databases which apply to all of the mailing
lists within that domain.  

* The subscriber registry that keeps the personal password and other 
information about each e-mail address that is subscribed to a mailing
list at that domain.  This registry is separate from the individual
subscriber database for each mailing list.

* The token identifiers for requests that have been delayed, or
require confirmation or approval from the moderators of a mailing list.

* The alias database, which allows subscribers to tell Majordomo that
two e-mail addresses should be treated the same.

* The duplicate databases, which store data about every message that is
delivered to a mailing list within the domain.  This allows subscribers
to avoid cross-posted messages, using the "unique" delivery class
(see "help set" for an explanation of delivery classes).

The GLOBAL list shares the values of (only) six configuration settings
with all of the other mailing lists in the same domain.  The six
settings are admin_body, admin_headers, noarchive_body,
noarchive_headers, taboo_body, and taboo_headers.  These settings are
combined with a mailing list's individual settings when Majordomo
attempts to find prohibited content in posted messages.

There are also a number of GLOBAL configration settings which can be managed
only by site or domain administrators.  For a complete list, see the 
"Settings for the GLOBAL pseudo-list only" section of the "help topics"
document.

For security reasons, some list-specific configuration settings can only
be changed by site or domain administrators.  Please see the help page
for each setting for more details:
   help configset_aliases
   help configset_archive_dir
   help configset_config_access
   help configset_debug
   help configset_delivery_rules
   help configset_priority

Majordomo automatically maintains the GLOBAL:owners auxiliary list, which
contains the addresses of all mailing list owners within a domain.
A site or domain owner who wishes to contact all of the list owners
at once can do so with the announce command.  In addition, a list of
these addresses, together with the names of the mailing lists that
each administrates, can be seen with the following command:
  who-owners GLOBAL

If you feel ready to begin creating mailing lists and configuring them,
the following help pages are recommended:
   help admin_passwords
   help createlist
   help admin_config

Domains do not have to be valid Internet domain names.  Like valid domain names,
they must contain only letters, digits, hyphen, or period.  However, within 
those limits, you can call domains anything you like.  This feature can be used 
to segregate lists that fall within the same domain.  For example, you could 
have five lists on the same host divided into two domains, "rodent" and "tree":

  rodent
  ------
  mouse@example.com
  squirrel@example.com

  tree
  ----
  maple@example.com
  oak@example.com
  magnolia@example.com

Make certain that the whereami setting for each list is set to the
actual internet domain name, for example:

  configset GLOBAL whereami = example.com


Session and Event Information
-----------------------------
Majordomo2 stores information about every email or command line
processed in files called sessions.  These are files containing all
pertinent information about the session (email headers, CGI environment,
selected environment variables, etc. as appropriate) as well as a log of
all commands executed during that session.  When a token is rejected,
information about the session that generated it is automatically mailed
to the list and site owners (if they elect to receive such information).
Old session files are automatically deleted after the number of days
indicated by the 'session_lifetime' GLOBAL configuration setting.

In addition, information about every command that Majordomo receives is
stored in an event log.  Old events are removed after the number of days
in the "log_lifetime" GLOBAL configuration setting.

To find the session number for a particular event, use the "report-full"
command.  To see information about a session, use the "sessioninfo"
command.  See "help report" and "help sessioninfo" for more details.


Commands available to site and domain administrators
----------------------------------------------------
Site and domain administrators can use any of the commands for list
administrators (as listed in "help admin_commands") and any of the
commands for subscribers (as shown in "help commands").  There are also
two commands that are usually available only if a site or domain
administrative password is used.

createlist LISTNAME [OWNER]
  The createlist command is used to create or destroy a mailing list.
  It can also be used to display the aliases for one mailing list or
  every mailing list within a domain.  See "help createlist" for more
  details.

rekey
  The rekey command has two purposes.  The first purpose is to alter the
  addresses in the subscriber databases according to the transformations
  in the addr_xforms configuration setting.  The second purpose is to
  verify that the subscriber databases and global registry are consistent
  with one another.  Please see "help configset_addr_xforms" and 
  "help rekey" for more information.


See Also:
   help accept
   help admin
   help admin_commands
   help alias
   help announce
   help auxiliary_list
   help changeaddr
   help configdef
   help configset
   help configset_admin_body
   help configset_admin_headers
   help configset_noarchive_body
   help configset_noarchive_headers
   help configset_taboo_body
   help configset_taboo_headers
   help configset_whereami
   help createlist
   help password
   help register
   help reject
   help rekey
   help sessioninfo
   help show
   help tokeninfo
   help unalias
   help unregister
   help which

This is the "admin_domain" help document for 
Majordomo 2, version 0.1200401130.

For a list of all help documents, send the following command:
   help topics
in the body of a message to mj2@smoe.org.

For assistance, please contact the smoe.org administrators.

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