If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on +alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to +operate. First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password +and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate +and various options for each email address. This take a while for +every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good +job as a list moderator. But there is a quick alternative, +the +listadmin program. It allow you to check lists for new messages +to moderate in a fraction of a second. Here is a test run on two +lists I recently took over:
+ ++ ++% time listadmin xiph +fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue +fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue + +real 0m1.709s +user 0m0.232s +sys 0m0.012s +% +
In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that +there are no message in the moderation queue. Every morning I +currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two +minutes. When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days +ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue. It took me +less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin +program.
+ +If you install +the listadmin +package from Debian and create a file ~/.listadmin.ini +with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:
+ ++ ++username@example.org +spamlevel 23 +default discard +discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list." + +password secret +adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list} +mailman-list@lists.example.com + +password hidden +other-list@otherserver.example.org +
There are other options to set as well. Check the manual page to +learn the details.
+ +If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where +the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a +generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment +variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:
+ ++ ++PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin +
If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you +can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the +initial screen dump (the xiph argument). Using an argument, only +lists matching the argument string will be processed. This make it +quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your +email.
+ +Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68 +mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the +process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of +time I could spend elsewhere over the years. It truly is nice free +software.
+ +As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.
+ +