[Mailman-Users] Using Mailman without /etc/aliases

[Adam Tauno Williams]

>>Our unix system here uses a kind of strange distributed aliases system-
>>running newaliases affects /etc/aliases on all machines.  So getting
>>mailman to work in the traditional sense wouldn't be acceptable at my
>>site.
>Does /etc/aliases get replaced every time or they just run "newliases"?
>You can have as many aliases files as you want, take a look at the
>AliasFile option in your sendmail.cf. You can add your own alias
>file such as /etc/mailman.aliases. Though, if your site is using rdist
>or something similar to distribute the aliases files, they might as well
>use it to distribute sendmail.cf some day and nuke all your modifications.
>Ask your system administrator about that.
>>I do, however, have root access on my own machine.  So I could create
>>a mail spool, or even a user, for each mailing list I create (not
>>many).
>That would work if you machine can receive mail on its own. If your
>site has a central mail server and for each host there has an MX DNS
>record that points to your mail hub then you won't be able to receive
>any mail on your machine because all or most mail software out there
>respects MX records. Why not ask the system administrator to install
>mailman on their central mail server if there is one and make it
>available to the users?

If your site has an LDAP directory that is also a great way to handle mail alias
distribution and supports mail routing as well.  If so, the local admins are
more likely willing to create an LDAP object for your list box then mess with
their mail servers, DNS, etc...

Of course, if you don't use LDAP this isn't very helpful.

Systems and Network Administrator
Morrison Industries
1825 Monroe Ave NW.
Grand Rapids, MI. 49505