system-config/doc/source/lists.rst

title

Mailing Lists

Mailing Lists

The Mailman Suite (Mailman Core, Postorius, Hyperkitty) is installed on lists.opendev.org to run mailing lists for the OpenDev Collaboratory and projects it hosts, as well as archives of those lists.

At a Glance

Hosts

• https://lists.opendev.org (and numerous other aliases)

Ansible

• :git_file:`playbooks/service-lists3.yaml`
• :git_file:`playbooks/roles/mailman3`

Projects

• https://www.list.org/
• https://gitlab.com/mailman/

Bugs

• https://storyboard.openstack.org/#!/project/748
• https://gitlab.com/mailman/

Resources

• Mailman Documentation

Adding a List

A list may be added by adding it to the openstack-infra/system-config repository in :git_file:`inventory/service/group_vars/mailman3.yaml`. For example:

- name: Example list
  description: 'This is an example'
  admin: 'admin@example.com'
  password: "{{ mailman_list_password }}"

Scripted Interaction with Lists

This may only be performed with root access to the list server.

sudo docker-compose -f /etc/mailman-compose/docker-compose.yaml exec -T -u mailman mailman-core mailman help

Use context help for the CLI's many subcommands, or see the Mailman v3 documentation for more details.

Example: Switch a mailing list to default moderation

For popular lists which allow subscribers to post freely and only moderate messages from non-subscribers, it's not uncommon to see spammers bypass this rule by subscribing first (or posting spam through Hyperkitty, as it auto-subscribes the poster). The recommended mitigation is to set the list's default action to hold for moderation, and then have a moderator switch any legitimate new subscriber's action to default processing after approving their post. For subscribers imported from Mailman 2.1, those typically already have default processing set, but anyone subscribing through Mailman 3 will use the list default (i.e. unset for their account) so we need to bulk update all of those to default processing or else they're going to be treated like new subscribers.

Here's how to do that from an SSH session on the mailing list server (make sure to pass the actual list name in the -l option instead of sample-list@lists.example.org):

$ sudo docker-compose -f /etc/mailman-compose/docker-compose.yaml exec -u mailman mailman-core mailman shell -l sample-list@lists.example.org -i

Welcome to the GNU Mailman shell
Use commit() to commit changes.
Use abort() to discard changes since the last commit.
Exit with ctrl+D does an implicit commit() but exit() does not.
The variable 'm' is the sample-list@lists.example.org mailing list
>>> from mailman.interfaces.action import Action
>>> for member in m.members.members:
...     if not member.moderation_action:
...         member.moderation_action = Action.defer
...
>>> commit()
>>> exit()

Note that we avoid altering moderation_action if it's already set, since previously identified spammers may have theirs set to something like Action.discard and we don't wish to reenable them. In this case Action.defer is the explicit default processing path, which means continue to check the message against other rules like max recipients, message length, administrivia filtering, and so forth. While there is an Action.accept it should be avoided, since it directly bypasses these valuable default processing rules.

Once this action has been performed, switch the list's Default action to take when a member posts to the list from Default processing to Hold for moderation in Postorius. Any existing subscribers will have the same experience as before, but anyone who subscribes to the list from this point forward will have their posts held for moderation until a moderator changes the Moderation value to Default processing under the Administration options at the end of their subscriber page in Postorius.

Django Admin Interface

There is an admin WebUI at /admin/, but it's only accessible over a loopback from localhost. If you need to use it, you'll want to connect an SSH tunnel from your own system and then override DNS resolution for lists.opendev.org to point to your loopback address.

List Configuration and Moderation Backdoor

If you need to step in and assist a list moderator or owner with configuration and moderation tasks, you can log into the appropriate Postorius URL for the corresponding list domain with the Django admin credentials. This is effectively a Mailman "super user" account (as well as being the account for administering the underlying Django installation). This same account can be similarly used in Hyperkitty to delete spam messages and threads in an emergency if the list owner is unavailable.