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1995-04-23
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Installing !MailList
====================
Upgrading from v0.09 or earlier
-----------------------------
When installing from v0.09 you can simply remove the old application and
replace it with the application in this archive. The application should then
run without problems. There is no need to UNREGISTER your previous version
if you have already REGISTERED it with v0.06 or later . If you have not yet
REGISTERED your robot then follow the instructions at the end of this file.
You do NOT need to use the !UnInstall feature .
^^^
After installing you should send a new QUOTA request from your root-account
as the information may have gotten lost. This was fixed in v0.10.
The rest of the document describes installation of MailList from scratch.
Upgrading from versions v0.10, v0.10a [with(out) FCO #001, FCO #002]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
You are very strongly urged to upgrade your copy of Newsbase to version 0.54
or later. Earlier versions of Newsbase may not work correctly with this
version of MailList. MailList v0.11 requires at least NewsBase v0.54
Upgrading from v0.11, v0.11a~c
------------------------------
No special actions ned to be taken.
New Installation
----------------
If a user 'maillist' exists you have to delete this user first! MailList
uses this username for it's Robots. MailList uses the existance of the user
'maillist' to flag the installation of MailList. If the user exists MailList
assumes it has already installed itself on your system.
In this manual I assume that you are familiar with the operation and control
of the RiscOS desktop and that you have some basic knowledge of how to send
and receive e-mail via the InterNet.
What does MailList offer?
-------------------------
MailList offers three basic services:
o Management of mailing-lists.
The idea was taken from LISTSERV for BITNET, ListProcessor for UN*X
and MajorDomo (Perl), to write an application that could allow you
to manage mailing-lists under the RiscOS desktop. Provided ofcourse
that your Archimedes is a node on the InterNet (via UUCP or TCP/IP)
o A simple mail-server.
As a spin-off of the mailing-list I decided to also integrate a
simple mail-server robot into MailList. The mail-server robot is a
separate service from the mailing-list. You don't need to create any
mailing-lists to be a mail-server site and vice versa. MailList
handles both separately.
o A simple scheduler.
Mail and news articles can be scheduled to be sent out at a give
date and interval. This is useful for regular postings (FAQ) or
birthday greetings, etc.
What do you need?
-----------------
For MailList to run you need:
o An Acorn RISC computer (Archimedes or RiscPC) connected to the Internet.
This can be via a modem (SLIP, PPP, UUCP) or a TCP/IP card. Provided that
NewsBase knows how to deal with the transport.
NOTE: If you are using UUCP-transport you are strongly advised to configure
it to use 'smail'! 'sendmail' behaves somewhat erratic at times. And
don't ask ME how to do this!
o 160kB of memory for MailList to run in.
o !NewsBase v0.53 or later
o A news/mail reader. Preferably !TTFN v0.36 or later
o !NewsDir. This is required by NewsBase so you probably have it already.
o A LARGE harddisc ;-)
o Subscribe yourself to the mailing-list about MailList by sending e-mail
To: maillist@cray-3.xs4all.nl
Subject: SIGNON MAILLIST-L
Leave the body of the message empty as it will be ignored by the robot.
'maillist-l' is a mailing-list which is used for the discussion of bugs,
new features, problems, questions etc. of MailList.
Installing
----------
Copy !MailList to a convenient spot on your harddisc. Preferably in the same
directory where you keep !NewsBase, !TTFN and !NewsDir.
If you are going to use the mail-server option, then you should also edit
the !Run file and change the definition of the variable
<MailList$MailServerDir> to a sensible path for your machine.
Double-click on the !MailList icon and watch MailList install itself
automagically.
Do you have "Username access control" enabled in the "Configure users"
setup of NewsBase? If so, you will have to change the 'Group no' of the
user maillist to 0. Otherwise, MailList won't be able to read mail from it's
mailing-lists. You have to do this manually for security reasons on your
part.
That's all there is to it.
Conventions
-----------
In the text below when I use <host> or <user> I mean the following:
An address on Internet should be RFC-822 compliant and looks something like
this:
someone@machine.subdomain.domain
With <host> I mean the right part of your host's Internet address. In our
example:
<host> stands for machine.subdomain.domain
<user> stands for someone
In the text <host> stands for the hostname of YOUR machine on which
MailList is running.
MailList assumes you have a <user> called 'root' defined on your machine.
With 'host-owner' I mean you. Assuming that you own/maintain the machine on
which MailList is running.
With 'list-owner' I mean the person who maintains the mailing-list. This is
usually the same person as the host-owner. But it is possible that someone
else is the list-owner. It is not even neccessary that the list-owner has a
mailbox on the <host>. A list-owner of a list on your <host> can be living
on the other side of the world. To MailList that doesn't matter.
With 'subscriber' I mean any person who is subscribed to the mailing-list.
How to make MailList do something
---------------------------------
When MailList is running you may notice that it has no user-interface. There
are no apparent configuration options. The menu only has the standard Info
and Quit items. So how *do* you tell MailList what it should do?
Well, being a mailing-list robot MailList is controlled entirely by sending
it e-mail. When MailList installed itself on your system, it created a new
user called 'maillist'. By sending e-mail to this user you can talk to
MailList. The e-mail sent to maillist@<host> is called a 'request'. The
Subject:-field of the e-mail message is used to convey the request to
MailList. MailList will usually ignore the rest of the message unless
specified explicitly in the documentation.
Requests are subdivided into 4 groups:
o Requests for host-owners
MailList recognizes a host-owner as the person who can send mail
from the address root@<host>, The socalled root-account on your
<host>. Since the owner/maintainer of the machine (you) is usually
the only person who can send mail from that address, this is a safe
assumption.
o Requests for list-owners
You, the host-owner, will have to tell MailList the
list-owner's Internet-address of the newly created mailing-list.
Mail received from that address will from then on be seen as mail
from the list-owner.
o Requests for subscribers
o Requests for me :-)
To keep all MailList Robots up-to-date on what is going on elsewhere
in the world, I have added a class of requests that allow me and the
Robots to talk to oneanother. These requests can only be generated
from <maillist@cray-3.xs4all.nl>. Read the file 'CyberTalk' for more
info.
To get an overview of all the requests that are accepted by this version of
MailList send e-mail to maillist@<host> and give it the Subject: HELP
Requests are case-insensitive. In this manual requests are in capitals.
To Batch Or Not To Batch
------------------------
If memory on your machine is tight (eg. 2MB) you may notice that MailList,
NewsBase and TTFN cannot run simultaneously. The best solution then is to
install more memory. However, if this is not an option you can use !Alarm to
start MailList on a given time. Send the request SET BATCH to
maillist@<host> to make MailList process it's jobs in batches. Sending the
request SET NOBATCH will make MailList a 'normal' multitasking application.
When MailList is configured to BATCH it will process all outstanding
request