[Balug-test] [BALUG-Admin] (pre-announce / "soft" open) BALUG-Test list

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli@cal.berkeley.edu):

> 
> Caveats - at present the archives are effectively broken.  It's a web
> server configuration issue - they're otherwise fine and being archived
> (and it's not filesystem or file permissions or the like).  I'll get
> that fixed (one of the relatively higher priorities).

You might want to check ownership/permissions in 
/var/lib/mailman/archives/private and
/var/lib/mailman/archives/public .

Examples on linuxmafia.com:

linuxmafia:/var/lib/mailman/archives# ls -l private/
total 38
drwxrwsr-x 183 list list 13312 Jul  2 03:27 conspire
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 Apr 16 15:53 conspire.mbox
drwxrwsr-x  38 list list  3072 Apr 18 03:27 dvlug
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 Jun  8  2009 dvlug.mbox
drwxrwsr-x  12 list list  1024 Apr  5 03:27 friday-follies
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 Sep 27  2010 friday-follies.mbox
drwxrwsr-x  21 list list  1024 Jan  2  2017 linuxcare-alumni
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 Dec  1  1999 linuxcare-alumni.mbox
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 May  7  2003 mailman
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 May  7  2003 mailman.mbox
drwxrwsr-x  13 list list  1024 Apr 15 03:27 revival
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 Dec  3  2007 revival.mbox
drwxrwsr-x  52 list list  3072 Jul  3 03:27 sf-lug
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 Dec 29  2016 sf-lug.mbox
drwxrwsr-x  25 list list  2048 Jul  1 03:27 skeptic
drwxr-sr-x   2 list list  1024 Mar 22 21:09 skeptic.mbox
drwxrwsr-x  14 list list  1024 Oct  5  2016 test
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 Jun 17  2010 test.mbox
drwxrwsr-x  13 list list  1024 Apr  2  2006 weaselware
drwxrwsr-x   2 list list  1024 May 13  2003 weaselware.mbox
linuxmafia:/var/lib/mailman/archives# ls -l public/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 52 Apr  3  2009 balug-talk-archive -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/balug-talk-archive
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 57 Apr  3  2009 balug-talk-archive.mbox -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/balug-talk-archive.mbox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 42 Apr  3  2009 conspire -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/conspire
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 47 Apr  3  2009 conspire.mbox -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/conspire.mbox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 39 Apr  3  2009 dvlug -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/dvlug
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 44 Apr  3  2009 dvlug.mbox -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/dvlug.mbox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 www-data list 48 May 19  2016 friday-follies -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/friday-follies
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 44 Apr  3  2009 lg_mirrors -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/lg_mirrors
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 48 Apr  3  2009 lg_translators -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/lg_translators
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 41 Apr  3  2009 mailman -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/mailman
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 46 Apr  3  2009 mailman.mbox -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/mailman.mbox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 40 Apr  3  2009 sf-lug -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/sf-lug
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 45 Apr  3  2009 sf-lug.mbox -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/sf-lug.mbox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 38 Apr  3  2009 test -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/test
lrwxrwxrwx 1 list     list 43 Apr  3  2009 test.mbox -> /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/test.mbox
linuxmafia:/var/lib/mailman/archives#


> The mail server has a whole lot 'o anti-spam stuff on it.

Mad props!

> And how can you tell if your post was successful without being able to
> see the archives?

It's a pity that GNU Mailman never added to the e-mail command interface
(the -request address) the ability to fetch mail batches.  For example, 
with Sympa, you can request that the command interface e-mail you a month's 
worth of old archived posts in gzipped mbox format.  

Here are docs for the commands you can send to the e-mail command interface:
http://www.list.org/mailman-member/node41.html#a:commands

That should help with one of your to-do items:

   mailman commands should work via email: subscribe/unsubscribe/help
   (need more complete list)

> And ... well, not exactly step-by-step, but tracking fair bit of
> migration and testing here:
> https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:mail_and_lists
> (it's not fully current ... but not that far from current either)

Coolness.

By the way, I had really good luck when I migrated the Skeptic mailing
list from Johns Hopkins University's Sympa server to my Mailman server,
in Octoble 2016, merging mail collected from the jhu.edu archives into
Mailman's, even though the mailing list was operational at both
locations for about a week or so during jhu.edu's shutdown of the
mailing list.  (The JHU people noticed that the listadmin no longer had
a university connection, so told the subscribers they were going to shut
it down imminently.  I offered substitute hosting to prevent it from
being lost.)

Of possible small interest:  Skeptic list's FAQ that still reflects the
Sympa setup (because I haven't yet had time to rewrite it): 
http://linuxmafia.com/pub/skeptic/skeptic_faq.html
http://linuxmafia.com/pub/skeptic/list.html

The FAQ details various commands that can be sent to Sympa's e-mail
command interface, including the GET command to fetch monthly archive
bundles.  (Again, GNU Mailman doesn't support that.  Pity.)