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MLP - Mailing List Processor for OS/2 Version 0.9 ========================================================================== Edition: Third Date: July 17, 1995 Author: Jivko Koltchev <jivko@ijs.com> ************************************************************************** THIS DOCUMENT will help you understand what MLP is and how to make it work for you. Please read this document before you ever try MLP to avoid any problems and possible damage to your system. NOTICES: MLP is FREEWARE but that does not mean that you are allowed to do everything you want with it. COPYRIGHT 1994, 1995 by Jivko Koltchev All Rights Reserved. Publication of this document or MLP software in any form is expressly prohibited without the explicit permission of the author. Any distribution of this program must include both program and documentation without any modifications. This program is available for you to use free of charge while commercial sale or re-sale of this program is allowed only with the approval of the author. DISCLAIMER: No warranties or guarantees are expressed or implied. The author assumes no liability for any damage or loss whatsoever that may occur while this program is being used. The author is under no obligation whatsoever to provide support of any kind. ************************************************************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: 1. History 2. Requirements a) MLP for OS/2 3. Installation 4. Configuration a) Configuration file b) Home directories c) Subscribe greetings d) Unsubscribe message e) Help Message f) WHO list g) Extensions h) -digest and -request 5. How to run the program? 6. How to stop the program? 7. How does it all work? a) Form the users' prospective b) From your prospective 8. Support 9. Known problems 10.The latest version 11.Registration 12.The money -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. History MLP was born from the need to process messages in an automatic way on an OS/2 platform. MLP was meant to be as simple to use as possible, yet offer all the power one would expect from a fully automated email system. As more and more people made use of MLP, new features were added, making the product more flexible and more powerfull. MLP can handle multiple mailing lists. Users can now benefit from keyword filtering, or from customized filters both global or list specific. Digest support was also added in the latest version. We have been using MLP for our own benefit for more that a year, and have refined the package over time. We are listening very closely to the MLP users accross the world, and will keep improving this package. We will release a Windows NT, and Windows 95 version of MLP in the near future, and will develop a graphical user interface make MLP even easier to use. If you are interested in future releases of MLP, or would like to see new features included, please do not hesitate to email to mlp@ijs.com ____________________ 2. Requirements a) MLP for OS/2 MLP requires OS/2 2.x and IBM TCP/IP (It should work fine with version 1.2.1 though I am currently using it with 2.0) ____________________ 3. Installation It is very simple to install and configure MLP. Here are the few steps you will have to follow: a) create a directory for your list processor (let it be MLP, for example) b) copy mlp.exe in that directory. c) you are all set. MLP is already installed on your system. You may want to include your MLP directory in your PATH environment though I do not recommend it. d) You may also want to copy mlp2txt.exe and txt2mlp.exe in that directory. You may need these utilities to manually edit the users' database NOTE: I assume you already have the IBM's TCP/IP package installed and configured to receive and send E-mail messages. ____________________ 4. Configuration **** Unlike the previous version of the package this one allows for more different things to be configured per each mailing list, however the defaults are such that if you don't want to go into details you will not have to do so. Unfortunately there was a need for a change in the configuration file format and you will have to rewrite your configuration file. a) Configuration file The new configuration file format resembles very much a Windows INI file and consists of two type of sections: - main section where some parameters could be specified - sections for each mailing list MLP will have to support. Note that there is a need for a blank line after each section in the configuration file. Comments (Line starting with '#') are not considered to be blank lines. The blank lines are considered to be section separators and should be only used as such. o. MLP section The beginning of this section should be indicated by the following line: [MLP] I would recommend you keep this section on the top of the configuration file, however it could be anywhere you want to place it. There are several options you could specify there and they are: - logfile Usage: logfile = filename where flename is the name of the log file MLP will use. There is not default name for this option. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - frequency Usage: frequency = seconds where seconds is the interval in which MLP will be checking the mail folder for new mail in seconds. The default is 60s. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - sleep Usage: sleep = seconds where seconds is the interval MLP will be idle between sending messages to the world. The default is 0, however if you have problems with sendmail use 2,3 or 4. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - filter Usage: filter=filename where filename is the name of a .CMD file which MLP will execute against every e-mail regardless of whether it is addressed to an e-mail list or not. There is no default name for this option. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - inbox Usage inbox = filename where filename is the full path name of the index file MLP will be monitoring. By default MLP will use the ETC environmental variable to locate sendmail.cf and will try to figure out the location of your InBox index file from there. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - maildir -> reserved - folders -> reserved - mailer Currently supported: lamail lamailfolder pmmail * ultimail ** - domainname Usage: domainname = name where name is the domain name for the computer hosting the mailing list. MLP is normally able to figure that out but if you environment is not set correctly or, which sometimes happens, sendmail is having problems expanding list@host to list@host.domain.name you would be better off using this option. o. Any mailing list section The beginning of a mailing list section should be indicated with the following line after a blank line: [list-name] where list-name is the name of the e-mail list. There are several options that MLP supports at this time: - domain Usage: domain = domain.name where domain.name could be actually any string which represents portion of the e-mail address of users whom MLP will permit access to the mailing list. There is no default for this option. There is no limit for the number of occurrence allowed for this option. - sysop Usage: sysop = sysop@site.net where sysop@site.net is the e-mail address of the mailing list's administrator. All messages that are not processed because of restrictions will be forwarded to the sysop. There is no default for this option. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - password Usage: password = yourpassword Messages sent to restricted lists will be processed regardless of the restrictions if they have 'Password: yourpasword' line in the header. There is no default for this option. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - keywordsubject Usage: keywordsubject = badword where bad word is a word which if found in the subject will force MLP to disregard the message. There is no default for this option. There is no limit for the number of occurrence allowed for this option. - keywordfrom Usage: keywordfrom = banneduser where banneduser is the e-mail address or portion of it (site) of users which will not be allowed to post messages to the list. there is no default for this option There is no limit for the number of occurrence allowed for this option. - keywordbody Usage: keywordbody = badword where badword is a word which if found in the body of a e-mail message will force MLP to disregard it. There is no default for this option. There is no limit for the number of occurrence allowed for this option. - filter Usage: filter = filename where filename is a .CMD file which MLP will execute against every message to that mailing list with argument the name of the file containing the e-mail message. The filter can modify that file or can even delete it which will make MLP not to send anything to the list. filename should be located in the list's home directory. The default for this option is list-name.cmd. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - broadcast Usage: broadcast = token where if token is 'no' no messages posted to this list will be broadcasted to the other members of the list except for message with correct password or messages posted by sysop. The default is 'yes' There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - subscribedusers Usage: subscribedusers = token where if token is 'yes' only users subscribed to the list will be allowed to post messages to the list. Messages posted from other accounts and without password will not be sent to the list. The default is 'no'. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - receipt Usage: receipt = token where if token is 'yes' MLP will send file list-name\receipt in response to successfully processed e-mail messages. If the file does not exist MLP will create one for you. The default is 'no'. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - backup Usage: backup = token where if token is 'yes' all successfully processed messages will be saved in directory list-name\backp. The default for this option is 'no' There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - autosubscribe Usage: autosubscribe = token where if token is 'no' MLP will not permit any users to subscribe to the list automatically. The list administrator will have to use txt2mlp.exe to add new users to the lsit. The default for this option is 'yes' There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - digest Usage: digest = token where if token is 'yes' MLP will be monitoring directory list-name\digest for files *.out and every time such file appear in that directory MLP will send it to the list using the firs non-blank line in the file as a subject for the message. Processed files will be renamed to files without .OUT extension. The default for this option is 'no' There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - enablewho Usage: enablewho = token where if token is 'yes' MLP will accept 'who' commands from subscribed users, compile list of all the users subscribing to that mailing list and send it back to whoever issued the command. The default for this option is 'yes' There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - enabletofield Usage: enabletofield = token where if token is 'yes' MLP will add To: filed to the outgoing to the subscribers message with the following format: "To: Multiple recipients of list LIST <LIST@SITE>", If the token is 'no' then no To: field will be added to the posted message. The default for this option is 'yes' There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. - footnote Usage: footnote = token where if token is 'yes' MLP will append to any out going mail the text from file mailinglist\footnote. The default for this option is 'no'. There is a maximum of one occurrence allowed for this option. b) Home directories For every mailing list you will have to create a 'home' directory. That directory should carry the name of the list and be located in the MLP directory. MLP will be using that 'home' directory to store temporary messages and will keep them there as long as needed. If such a directory does not exist MLP will attempt creating it for you. c) Subscribe greetings Every mailing list should have a special file name 'subscribe' which MLP will mail back automatically to every new member. The 'subscribe' file should be located in the 'home' directory of the corresponding mailing list. On FAT partitioned drives the file name should be 'subscrib.e' d) Unsubscribe message Every mailing list should have a special file name 'unsubscribe' which MLP will mail back automatically to every member indicating termination of his or her membership. The 'unsubscribe' file should be located in the 'home' directory of the corresponding mailing list. On FAT partitioned drives the file name should be 'unsubscr.ibe' e) Help Message Every mailing list should have a special file 'help' in its home directory. MLP will send that file back in response to e-mail to the corresponding mailing list with one word 'help' in the Subject: line f) WHO list There is no need for a special file in the home mailing list directory for the 'who' command to work. MLP will automatically generate list of all users subscribed to the current mailing list and send it back to the user who requested it. g) Extensions You can define your own set of commands that MLP will understand and execute by creating appropriately named .CMD files and copying them in the mailing list's 'home' directory. When MLP comes across e-mail addressed to one of the supported lists with subject line: "Subject: [command] arguments" it will check the mailing list's directory to see if file command.CMD exists and if so MLP will call that script file the following way: "mlist\command.CMD mlist\response.file mlist\emailbody arguments". Note that the response.file contains the message header and should not be overwritten. command.CMD should only append information to that file or delete it. If the requested command does not exist MLP will first try to execute script with name cmderror.cmd in the MLP's home directory (NOTE! not the list's home directory) and if that script does not exist it will create standard response message and send it back to the user. MLP will start the cmderror.cmd script wit the following arguments: "cmderror.cmd mlist\response.file command". By the time MLP calls the CMD file the following lines will be saved in the response file: Errors-To: Errors@site X-Listprocessor: Mail List Processor for OS/2, V0.8 - Reply-To: mailinglist@site To: sender; From: mailinglist@site Subject: Re: [command] <blank line> h) -digest and -request MLP will process messages to list-request@site and list-digest@site but will not send them to the members of the list. ____________________ 5. How to run the program? MLP can be started without any arguments. It will automatically locate your sendmail.cf file (using the ETC variable) and find out where your InBox resides. Thus MLP will be able to monitor all the incoming mail and process it almost immediately. If you do not want MLP to monitor your InBox but another folder instead you can run MLP and as a first parameter specify the name of the folder's index file. One may want to do it this way if one wants to monitor the messages posted on the list and remove some of them from time to time. If this is the case than you will have to move the messages from your InBox to the specified folder so that MLP will be able to process the messages. You could also use the [MLP] section in the configuration file to point MLP to the index file you want it to monitor. Be aware, however, that the index file specified as argument at the command line overwrites the one from the configuration file. Most probably you would like to have MLP start automatically every time you restart your system. The best place to do this is not your STARTUP.CMD file because this way MLP will be started before the TCP/IP has been initialized and if there are messages to be posted MLP will start doing it right away. (MLP uses sendmail.exe to send its messages so it doesn't really care if the network is up or not. Perhaps I should change that but it will be in one of the future releases.) So the best place to start MLP is at the end of your TCPEXIT.CMD file including the following few lines: (If you don't have one = create it in the tcpip\bin directory) drive: cd \MLP MLP . mlp.log I am sure you will find much better ways to do it but the above is something that should work. ____________________ 6. How to stop the program? Hit <Esc> to kill the process. ____________________ 7. How does it all work? a) Form the users' prospective - to subscribe a user will have to send e-mail to mailing_list@your.host with subject 'subscribe' (one word only) In confirmation the user will receive your 'subscribe' file. - to unsubscribe a user will have to send e-mail to mailing_list@your.host with subject 'unsubscribe' (one word only) In confirmation the user will receive your 'unsubscribe' file. - to receive some help a user will have to send e-mail to mailing_list@your.host with subject 'help' (one word only) The user will receive your 'help' file. - to receive the list of all the users subscribed to the current list a user should send e-mail to mailing-list@your.host with subject 'who' [one word only]. - to post messages to all the subscribers a user will have to send e-mail to mailing_list@your.host with any subject but 'subscribe', 'unsubscribe' or 'help' b) From your prospective - there will be a special data base file "mlusers" created in the MLP directory. This file is very important. Make sure you do not delete it by mistake. Because of the way the data is stored in mlusers you may notice that it doesn't change its size after some users have unsubscribed. That is OK. MLP will not rewrite the file but will try to make use of the available empty space the next time someone subscribes to any list. Unfortunately there is no utility that currently allows you to edit the msusers file. However there are two utilities that will allow you to convert the mlusers file into an ASCII text file and the other way around. MLP2TXT.EXE will create mlusers.txt file using the mlusers file in the current directory. TXT2MLP.EXE on the other hand will take either mlusers.txt or the file from the command line and will create or overwrite mlusers file. The default output os MLP2TXT.EXE is mlusers.txt. Default input file for TXT2MLP.EXE is file mlusers.txt however TXT2MLP.EXE will use any other files supplied in the command line as firs argument. The correct format for the mlusers.txt file is: #comments mailinglist user@site.net mailinglist user@site.net #comments In case the data base file gets corrupted (It can happen if you reset your computer without stopping the MLP process) the next time you run MLP it will try to restore the musers file and work with it. If you overwrite portions of that file, MLP may not be able to restore it properly. - when a message cannot be sent to its recipient MLP will keep trying every hour to deliver the message for about 72 hours. At the end the message will be discarded and the recipient removed from the mailing list. You could clean up the names of the files that need to be resent by executing mlp2txt.exe and txt2mlp.exe in a roll. ____________________ 8. Support There are currently several ways you could get support for MLP: - email Send e-mail to one of the following e-mail addresses: mlpsupport@ijs.com jivko@netcom.com jivko@ijs.com - mailing list mlp@ijs.com is a mailing list which is dedicated to MLP related topics. That mailing list is supported by the latest version of MLP so you should already know how to subscribe to it. (Just in case - send e-mail to mlp@ijs.com with 'subscribe' as message subject.) - WEB page Check out the MLP web page http://www.ijs.com/mlp.html for some fresh information and hints on using MLP. There you will find all additional information and filter scripts which were not included in the released ZIP file. ____________________ 9. Known problems - It may not be a good idea to subscribe to any of the mailing lists from the machine on which you are running MLP. Somehow sendmail doesn't always behave very nicely when sending E-mail to itself. I have an idea what the problem might be and will hopefully fix it in the next release. - *.ogm files (temporary files which MLP uses and stores in the home directory of each mailing list) will some times not be deleted even though they were sent to all subscribers of the list. This is not a big problem since next time MLP processes some e-mail for that mailing list it will delete them. - It has been reported that on heavily loaded systems MLP could lead to corruption of the InBox.NDX file. This seems to be happening when MLP is processing the mailing list while new messages are being read with LaMail. The problem seems to be due to the way MLP updates the InBox.NDX file - there is one brief moment of time during which MLP deletes the InBox.NDX file and what I thing us happening is that if at that point of time LaMail or Sendmail are able to create a new copy of that file MLP will not be able to finish its job correctly... NOTE: LAMPOP V1.1 has big potentials to corrupt you InBox.NDX file. I do not know if there is a newer version of that product but since I am now testing it in combination with mlp I thought it would be a good idea to share this information here. - Performance problems on heavily loaded systems. This problem will be addresses in the next release. I encourage any one experiencing this problem and is willing to test alfa releases to send me e-mail so I could forward to him or her a copy of MLP as soon as the new code is implemented. ____________________ 10.The latest version There are currently several ways you could obtain the latest version of MLP which include: - email You could send e-mail to mlp@ijs.com with 'Subject: [latest]' and you will receive the latest version of MLP in uuncoded e-mail. - ftp You could ftp the latest version of mlp from the following directory: ftp://ftp.ijs.com/MLP - www You could also try to get the latest version of MLP using the following web page: http://www.ijs.com/mlp.html ____________________ 11.Registration It is not required but recommendable for you to register as a MLP user by sending the following form to mlpuser@ijs.com Name: Company: Telephone: Fax: MLP version: Number of mailing lists supported using MLP: E-mail address: Send me BETA releases: [Yes]/[No] Send me upgrades: [Yes]/[No] Add me to the MLP mailing list: [Yes]/[No] The experience so far has shown it to be very difficult to keep track of who is using MLP and keep those people up to date with what is going on there with MLP and when new releases are coming out etc. Several new releases have been scheduled for the next several months and your help in testing them would be highly appreciated. By sending us your registration e-mail you will be receiving every new release and even BETA releases which will help develop a better product. You could also register using the MLP web page: http://www.ijs.com/mlp.html ____________________ 12.The money Feel free to contribute whatever you can without being obliged to do so. Be warned however that I will not accept contributions exceeding the amount of $1000 per site without strong motivation on your side.