Majordomo is a mailing list manager (MLM) developed by Brent Chapman of Great Circle Associates. It is written in Perl and works in conjunction with sendmail on UNIX and related operating systems.
Following are the steps to install majordomo:
- Create a user called “majordomo”. This user should be in the group “daemon”; the home directory should be the installation directory and the shell /bin/false.
- Edit the Makefile. Define the proper locations of Perl, the C compiler, and the home directory of the “majordomo” user (i.e., the installation directory). If a user wants to create a group called majordomo with GID 45 and add a user called majordomo with UID 123, he will issue the following commands:
useradd -g 45 -u 123 majordomo
- Copy sample.cf to majordomo.cf and edit it as required.
Now, run the following commands to install the majordomo utility:
make install-wrapper
- Test the configuration as suggested with the following:
If the installation is successful, majordomo will prompt to register to the majordomo mailing list.
The command syntax of the majordomo command is as follows:
where,
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| subscribe [address] | Subscribes a specified address to the named list. |
| unsubscribe [address] | Unsubscribes a specified address to the named list. |
| get [file name] | Gets the file related to list. |
| index | Returns an index of the files you can get associated with list. |
| which [address] | Finds out to which lists you (or address if specified) are subscribed. |
| who | Finds out who is on the named list. |
| info | Retrieves the general introductory information for the named list. |
| lists | Shows the lists served by this Majordomo server. It will also show a 50 character list description if one has been provided. |
| help | Retrieves an informational message, a brief synopsis of the user portion of this manual page. |
| end | Stops processing commands (useful if your mailer adds a signature). |
To create a mailing list, you should create a file having the name of the list in the Majordomo lists directory. For example, if a user wants to create a list test, he will create a test file as Majordomo with the help of the following commands:
# su majordomo
$ touch /usr/local/majordomo-1.94.5/lists/test
When the test file is created, add the related aliases:
test: :include:/usr/local/majordomo-1.94.5/lists/test
owner-test: owner_name
test-request: “|/usr/local/majordomo-1.94.5/wrapper request-answer test”
test-approval: owner_name
Now, test the operation of the list named test by issuing the following command to Majordomo:
$ echo lists | mail majordomo
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