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Low End Mac Tech Journal

The Unofficial Macjordomo Page

Daniel Knight - 1999.09.10

Macjordomo is a powerful, easy-to-use freeware listserver. Versions are available for Mac OS 8 and 9 as well as Mac OS X.

MacjordomoResources

Official Macjordomo site: http://macjordomo.med.cornell.edu/

Useful Spots on the Macjordomo Site

Other Good Resources for Macjordomo Operators

Providing Internet Services via the Mac OS

A slightly out of date but very nicely written book covering many basics of internet communication and explaining how Macs can be used as internet servers. The entire book is available via the web using the above link.

There is a chapter of the book specifically about running a mailing list on the Mac and a section specifically about Macjordomo. Again, slightly out of date, but the basics are there and very nicely presented, with screen shots etc. http://www.pism.com/chapt05/chapt05.html#50

Q: How do I back up my Macjordomo server?

A: Retrospect works fine. Macjordomo can be running during the backup, but if so the Retrospect “compare” operation may fail for some files that change after the backup but before the compare. But this is not a problem.

Q: I’m nervous about running an alpha version of Macjordomo, is it stable?

A: The alpha versions of Macjordomo are usually quite stable and functional. If a new version has problems they are usually caught within a few days and the version is withdrawn from the site or a newer one is posted. If the alpha version is at least a month or so old and there are no newer versions on the ftp site, it’s probably the best choice to use.

Q: Can I use AppleScript with Macjordomo.

A: YES. Start your script editor, choose Open Dictionary from the the File menu, and open your copy of Macjordomo to see what you can do.

[NOTE: Keith Lamont has posted several very useful looking scripts, it would be great to slap ’em all on a special page somewhere.]

Q: What the heck is the “fuzzy logic” option?

A: From Michele Fuortes: “It tries to improve user address recognition when commands or messages are sent. E.g. mfuortes@hofdi.med.cornell.edu and mfuortes@mail.med.cornell.edu will be recognized as the same person.”

Q: What can you do about mail loops caused by “vacation mail” notices that respond to list messages, thereby prompting more “vacation mail” notices, etc.?

A: Other than warn your subscribers not to use these notices, not much. If you cannot monitor the list closely to remove subscribers who sabotage the list in this way, you may want to consider a long “serving interval” time for your list to at least minimize the damage (although this will also create a long delay in posting legitimate messages).

Q: Can I add/delete/modify my subscribers via email?

A: Sure, these are called “administrative commands.” The follow the formats:

  • approve <subscription or list POPpassword> subscribe <listname> <useraddress> <realname>
  • approve <subscription or list POPpassword> unsubscribe <listname> <useraddress>
  • approve <subscription or list POPpassword> set <listname> <useraddress> digest
  • approve <subscription or list POPpassword> review <listname> [RealNames] [Options]
[MORE NEED TO BE ADDED, MAYBE BETTER EXPLANATIONS OR EXAMPLES]

Q: All the subscribers on my list have been marked “inactive” and aren’t getting their mail. What went wrong?

A: Check the Macjordomo error log! Probably the mail server you are using is refusing to relay mail from your Macjordomo server. This often happens when “relay restrictions” are set on mail server to prevent spam.

If you are using EIMS, here is more information from Glenn Anderson: <<The Relay Restrictions is based on the SMTP MAIL FROM and RCPT TO addresses. For a message to be relayed when you have the Relay Restrictions set to “Only relay for local domains and the following domains” one of these addresses must be a local domain or in the list of domains. In the case of Macjordomo, the Problems To address is the SMTP MAIL FROM address (the list members are the RCPT TO addresses), so this must be in a domain that is either local to EIMS, or in the list it will relay for.>>

Q: OK, I’ve fixed the problem that caused all my subscribers to be marked inactive, but they are are still marked inactive. How do I make them all active again without doing it one at a time, by hand?

A: From Michele Fuortes: <<You can export the users, create a new list and import the users again, BUT you will loose also the other settings (digests etc.). Alternatively you can send a HUGE admin message with all the addresses and set to active. Again export the users, then playing with a spreadsheet program you can copy and past an admin command, copy to a mail client etc.. Maybe try to split it in a few admin messages.>>

Q: I’ve got a list with all the settings just the way I like them, and now I want to “clone” it so I can have a very similar list without having to go through all the setup. How can I do it?

A: From Michele Fourtes: <<if you know how to use ResEdit create a new list and just fill in the list name, then open the old and new list with ResEdit and copy the following resources:

Llst
Lls2
Lls3 (if it’s there)
STR
STR#
TEXT
then relaunch Macjordomo and change the list names etc.>>

Q: How do I quickly delete all the subscribers from a list?

A: Quit Macjordomo. Make a backup copy of the list data file (found in the Macjordomo folder within the Preferences folder) and store it elsewhere. Then use a file editing utility like FEdit Plus or HexEdit to completely delete the Data Fork of the file (don’t molest the Resource Fork).

Keywords: #macjordomo

Short link: http://goo.gl/1vWjnd