Apple 10.6 manual Using Mailing Lists with Mail Service, Mailman-Based Mailing Lists

Using Mailing Lists with Mail Service

Mac OS X Server provides two types of mailing lists:

ÂÂ A Mailman-based list where a single mail message is distributed to recipients who have subscribed to the list

ÂÂ A wiki-based list that allows you to send a single message that is copied to each member of a Mac OS X Server wiki group

Mailman-Based Mailing Lists

Mac OS X Server uses Mailman for its traditional mailing list service.

Mailman is a mailing list service with support for built-in archiving, automatic bounce processing, content filtering, digest delivery, spam filters, and other features. Mailman provides a customizable web page for each mailing list.

Users can subscribe and unsubscribe themselves, as well as change list preferences. List and site administrators can use the web interface for common tasks such as account management, approvals, moderation, and list configuration. The web interface requires that you have the Apache web server running.

You can access Mailman at www.yourdomain.com/mailman/listinfo.

Mailman receives mail from the local postfix process by configuring alias maps. Messages destined for a mail list are piped by the local process to Mailman processes. The mapping is provided in /var/mailman/data/aliases.

You can find more information about configuring and administering mail lists using Mailman at www.list.org and at /Library/Documentation/Services/mailman.

Mailing lists differ from workgroups in a few fundamental ways: ÂÂ Mailing lists aren’t linked to file or directory permissions.

ÂÂ Mailing lists can be administered by someone other than the workgroup or server administrator.

ÂÂ Mailing list subscribers do not need an account (mail or file access) on the list’s server. Any mail address can be added to the list.

ÂÂ Mailing list subscribers can often remove themselves from and add themselves to lists.

Wiki-Based Mailing Lists

A wiki-based mailing list is based on a Mac OS X wiki group. It differs from a Mailman- based mailing list in the following ways:

ÂÂ Group members receive all messages sent to the group’s address. No subscription is required.

ÂÂ The recipients list is up-to-date with the wiki group, so only members of the group receive mail messages.

ÂÂ The group administrator controls the membership of the group.

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Chapter 1    Understanding Mail Service