README for minordomo 0.6.1

Minordomo is a minimalist mailing list manager. It can be considered a feature
limited replacement of majordomo. Supported commands are:

subscribe <list>:	subscribes to a mailing list
unsubscribe <list>:	unsubscribes from a mailing list
info [<list>]:		gets information on a list or server
list <list>:		returns a subscriber list if enabled

To install, place minordomo.pl someplace (/usr/local/sbin is OK) where it will
be executable by your MTA. Then copy minordomo.conf.sample to 
/etc/minordomo.conf. If you wish to place this in a different location, edit
the appropriate line at the top of minordomo.pl. The config file is fairly
self explanatory. Minordomo will also read a per-list config file. This has
the same syntax as /etc/minordomo.conf, and is read from the file config
in the directory of the list (<directory>/<list>/config). This is useful for
directives on a list that may be different from standard (e.g. working with
virtual domains).

You will also need to add a mailing alias for minordomo
that pipes messages to the program. For example, with sendmail at the following
line to /etc/aliases and run newaliases:

minordomo:		"|/usr/local/sbin/minordomo.pl"

Creating lists is a relatively simple process. First, create a directory for
the list in your minordomo directory (from minordomo.conf). This directory must
be read/writeable by your MTA. The name of the directory should be that of the
list. In the directory, you should have a file called info which contains the
information returned when a user subscribes or sends the "info <list>" command.
It is also advisable to put a line or two in a file called info in the main
minordomo directory describing the list. You may also optionally put a file
called footer in the directory. This file will be automatically appended to all
messages going through the list. It is a plain text file with the following
escape sequences allowed:

\a:			expands to the administrator's e-mail address
\d:			expands to the domain name
\l:			expands to the mailing list name (without the domain)

You can look in the sample-list directory for examples of these files. Once you
have created the directory and files, add another alias like this:

list:			"|/usr/local/sbin/minordomo.pl list"

That is all there is to it. If you have any questions or comments, subscribe to
the minordomo mailing list. Send a message to minordomo@nodomainname.net with a
subject of "subscribe minordomo-list" (no quotes).

Jakob 'sparky' Kaivo
jake@nodomainname.net
04 February 1999
