Import ezmlm-idx 0.40

[ezmlm] / ezmlm-request.1

.TH ezmlm-request 1
.SH NAME
ezmlm-request \- Process subject line and body ezmlm commands
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ezmlm-request
[
.B \-f\fI config
]
.I dir
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B ezmlm-request
processes ezmlm commands in the subject line or message body.
.B ezmlm-request
enables these uses to send the message to
.I list\fB\-request\fI@host
with the complete command address line in the subject field,
or with commands and arguments separated by white
space.
.B ezmlm-request
uses the text to construct a ezmlm command message to the list.
If the subject does not start with a letter,
.B ezmlm-request
instead uses the first body line that starts with a letter. Processing
terminates if a line with a hyphen in the first position is encountered.

All commands are expected to be in ezmlm command address format or formatted
as:

.EX
.BR command [list@listhost [user@userhost]]
.EE

.B ezmlm-request
when invoked with the
.B \-f
switch and a configuration file (see below), ignores the subject and processes
the first body line (per rules above) in conjunction with the configuration
file. It also services the 
.B lists
and
.B which
commands. This can be used
to construct a global list interface, similar to that used by some other
mailing list managers.

Messages at the 
.I list\fB\-request\fI@host
are restricted to the local list. When
.B ezmlm-request
is invoked with the
.B \-f\fI config
switch, command messages are limited to lists in
.I config
or at the local host.

Invalid requests for an existing ezmlm list will
lead to a ``help'' message from
.BR ezmlm-manage(1) .
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-f\fI config
Function as a global interface to ezmlm lists in accordance with
.IR config.
This file consists of lines starting in the first position
with ``list@host:listdir:description''. Lines that are blank or start
 with ``#'' are ignored. ``listdir''
and ``description'' are optional. If only ``list@host'' is given, the list
is used to restrict commands (see below), but not listed. To allow the list
to be shown by a ``list'' command, use ``list@host:''. To specify only
the list name and description, use ``list@host::description''.
If ``listdir'' is
present, the
.B which
command attempts to determine if the user is a subscriber of the list.
.B NOTE:
this will work only if the user running
.B ezmlm-request
has read access to the lists subscriber database.

If ``listhost'' is not specified,
.B ezmlm-request
will use the ``listhost'' from the first
.I config
entry matching ``listlocal''. If ``listhost'' is specified, but not found
in
.IR config ,
it is set to the contents of
.IR dir\fB/outhost .
.SH USAGE
Place an invocation of
.B ezmlm-request
in
.I dir\fB/manager
anywhere before the
.B ezmlm-manage(1)
line.

Alternatively, set up
.I dir\fB/request
with an invocation of
.BR ezmlm-request .
Make a link from
.I ~/.qmail-list-request
to this file.

For the global interface, place 
.B /path/ezmlm-request -f \fIconfig dir
into a file.
Link
.I ~/.qmail-ezmlm
and
.I ~/.qmail-ezmlm-default
to this file. The latter allows
.B ezmlm-request
to handle its own bounces as well as to reply to messages to e.g.
\``user-ezmlm-lists@listhost''.
Create
.IR dir\fB/inlocal
and
.IR dir\fB/outlocal
with ``user-ezmlm'',
.IR dir\fB/outhost
with ``listhost'',
.IR dir\fB/headerremove
with headers to be stripped (copy from a list),
.IR dir/text\fB/help ,
.IR dir/text\fB/top ,
and
.I dir/text\fB/bottom
with the appropriate texts.
Also, create
.I config
with the appropriate contents.

Mail to ``user-ezmlm@listhost'' will now be answered by
.BR ezmlm-request .
.SH "RECOGNIZED COMMANDS"
Any command not recognized by
.B ezmlm-request
is assumed to be valid, as long as it consists of only letters, numbers,
hyphen, underscore, period, and ``+''. This allows
.B ezmlm-request
to correctly handle commands added by the list owner.

A number of commands are recognized by
.B ezmlm-request
but not processed. Instead they are mapped to
.B help 
without arguments. These
are:
.BR system ,
.BR put ,
and
.BR set .

.B ezmlm-request
also handles a number of aliases for ezmlm commands. Since
.B ezmlm-request
only passes on requests to the list, local restrictions apply.
For commands that have aliases, accepted aliases are listed:
.TP
.B subscribe
sub
.TP
.B unsubscribe
unsub, signoff, remove.
.TP
.B index
ind.
.TP
.B list
recipients, showdist, review, rev, who.
.TP

Some commands are handled differently when used without arguments:
.TP
.B query
Treated like ``which''.
.TP
.B list
Treated like ``lists''.
.SH BUGS
.B ezmlm-request
places stricter requirements on addresses than rfc822. Thus, some addresses
that are rfc822-compliant cannot be used as
.B ezmlm-request
command arguments. If you fix this,
please send a patch to lindberg@id.wustl.edu. I think qmail has the same
restriction, though.

.B ezmlm-request
uses NUL as a line terminator internally. Thus, if will fail if NUL is found
within the line it tries to interpret as a command. It is harmless, other than
that the remainder of the line will be ignored.

The
.B ezmlm-request
\``which''
command does not differentiate between a list for which the command is not
available, a list for which the subscriber db is not accessible, and a list
for which the address is not a subscriber. This should be considered a feature.
.SH BUGS
.B ezmlm-request
when used as a global interface and receiving multipart messages assumes that
the first line of the fist part is the command. Further, it assumes that the
first line starting``--'' is the first MIME boundary. This is virtually
always true, but it is easy to construct legal messages that do not fit these
assumptions.
.B ezmlm-request
in the global interface role
will fail if this first part or the entire message is base64 encoded.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
ezmlm-get(1),
ezmlm-manage(1),
ezmlm-send(1),
ezmlm(5)