blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   2           "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   3 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr">
   4   <head>
   5     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</title>
   7     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
   8     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
   9
  10
  11   </head>
  12   <body>
  13     <div class="title">
  14  <h1>
  15      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  16
  17  </h1>
  18
  19 </div>
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</div>
  24       <div class="date">22nd October 2014</div>
  25       <div class="body"><p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
  26 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
  27 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
  28 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
  29 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
  30 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
  31 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
  32 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
  33 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
  34 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
  35 lists I recently took over:</p>
  36
  37 <p><blockquote><pre>
  38 % time listadmin xiph
  39 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
  40 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
  41
  42 real    0m1.709s
  43 user    0m0.232s
  44 sys     0m0.012s
  45 %
  46 </pre></blockquote></p>
  47
  48 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
  49 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
  50 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
  51 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
  52 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
  53 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
  54 program.</p>
  55
  56 <p>If you install
  57 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
  58 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
  59 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
  60
  61 <p><blockquote><pre>
  62 username username@example.org
  63 spamlevel 23
  64 default discard
  65 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
  66
  67 password secret
  68 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
  69 mailman-list@lists.example.com
  70
  71 password hidden
  72 other-list@otherserver.example.org
  73 </pre></blockquote></p>
  74
  75 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
  76 learn the details.</p>
  77
  78 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
  79 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
  80 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
  81 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
  82
  83 <p><blockquote><pre>
  84 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
  85 </pre></blockquote></p>
  86
  87 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
  88 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
  89 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
  90 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
  91 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
  92 email.</p>
  93
  94 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
  95 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
  96 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
  97 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
  98 software.</p>
  99
 100 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 101 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 102 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 103
 104 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
 105 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
 106 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
 107 sure why.</p>
 108 </div>
 109
 110       <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.</div>
 111
 112
 113     </div>
 114
 115
 116
 117
 118     <div id="sidebar">
 119
 120
 121
 122 <h2>Archive</h2>
 123 <ul>
 124
 125 <li>2015
 126 <ul>
 127
 128 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 129
 130 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 131
 132 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
 133
 134 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
 135
 136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 137
 138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
 139
 140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
 141
 142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (1)</a></li>
 143
 144 </ul></li>
 145
 146 <li>2014
 147 <ul>
 148
 149 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 150
 151 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
 152
 153 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
 154
 155 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 156
 157 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
 158
 159 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 160
 161 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
 162
 163 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
 164
 165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 166
 167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
 168
 169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 170
 171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
 172
 173 </ul></li>
 174
 175 <li>2013
 176 <ul>
 177
 178 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 179
 180 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
 181
 182 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
 183
 184 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
 185
 186 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 187
 188 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
 189
 190 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 191
 192 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 193
 194 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 195
 196 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
 197
 198 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
 199
 200 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 201
 202 </ul></li>
 203
 204 <li>2012
 205 <ul>
 206
 207 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 208
 209 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 210
 211 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 212
 213 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 214
 215 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 216
 217 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 218
 219 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 220
 221 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 222
 223 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 224
 225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 226
 227 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 228
 229 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 230
 231 </ul></li>
 232
 233 <li>2011
 234 <ul>
 235
 236 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 237
 238 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 239
 240 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 241
 242 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 243
 244 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 245
 246 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 247
 248 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 249
 250 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 251
 252 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 253
 254 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 255
 256 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 257
 258 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 259
 260 </ul></li>
 261
 262 <li>2010
 263 <ul>
 264
 265 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 266
 267 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 268
 269 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 270
 271 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 272
 273 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 274
 275 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 276
 277 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 278
 279 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 280
 281 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 282
 283 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 284
 285 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 286
 287 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 288
 289 </ul></li>
 290
 291 <li>2009
 292 <ul>
 293
 294 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 295
 296 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 297
 298 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 299
 300 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 301
 302 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 303
 304 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 305
 306 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 307
 308 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 309
 310 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 311
 312 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 313
 314 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 315
 316 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 317
 318 </ul></li>
 319
 320 <li>2008
 321 <ul>
 322
 323 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 324
 325 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 326
 327 </ul></li>
 328
 329 </ul>
 330
 331
 332
 333 <h2>Tags</h2>
 334 <ul>
 335
 336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 337
 338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 339
 340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 341
 342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
 343
 344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (8)</a></li>
 345
 346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
 347
 348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 349
 350  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
 351
 352  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (111)</a></li>
 353
 354  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (153)</a></li>
 355
 356  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
 357
 358  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
 359
 360  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (15)</a></li>
 361
 362  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 363
 364  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (285)</a></li>
 365
 366  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
 367
 368  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 369
 370  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (17)</a></li>
 371
 372  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
 373
 374  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (16)</a></li>
 375
 376  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
 377
 378  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
 379
 380  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (10)</a></li>
 381
 382  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
 383
 384  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
 385
 386  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
 387
 388  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
 389
 390  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 391
 392  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
 393
 394  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (36)</a></li>
 395
 396  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (264)</a></li>
 397
 398  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (177)</a></li>
 399
 400  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (19)</a></li>
 401
 402  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 403
 404  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (53)</a></li>
 405
 406  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (86)</a></li>
 407
 408  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 409
 410  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
 411
 412  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 413
 414  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
 415
 416  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
 417
 418  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 419
 420  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
 421
 422  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 423
 424  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (41)</a></li>
 425
 426  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 427
 428  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
 429
 430  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (48)</a></li>
 431
 432  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
 433
 434  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (9)</a></li>
 435
 436  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (33)</a></li>
 437
 438  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
 439
 440  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
 441
 442  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
 443
 444  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (54)</a></li>
 445
 446  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 447
 448  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (37)</a></li>
 449
 450 </ul>
 451
 452
 453     </div>
 454     <p style="text-align: right">
 455  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
 456 </p>
 457
 458   </body>
 459 </html>