[Mailman-Users] no require password for unsubscribe?

[Jon Carnes]

you can setup your lists so that folks can unsubscribe via email without a
password.  This is simple to do, but requires some setup.  This setup is
good for any number of email "triggers" that you might want to use with
Mailman.

 - In the aliases file, add an entry for the unsubscribe email:
     volleyball-unsub:  "|/usr/local/sbin/v-unsub"

 - In the /etc/smrsh directory:
     ln -s /usr/local/sbin/v-unsub v-unsub

 - In /usr/local/sbin create the script v-unsub:

#!/bin/bash
# script to unsubscribe user from volleyball list
#   Mail to volleyball-unsub at haht.com
#   Subject: unsubscribe username at domain.com
UNSUB=`grep -i "Subject: " - |head -1`
for i in $UNSUB
  do
  # === Note: the below text is all on one line...===
  echo $i |grep -q "@" && echo "/home/mailman/bin/remove_members volleyball
$i" >> /home/mailman/ext/pending_removals
  # === Note: the above text is all on one line... ===
done
chmod 0777 /home/mailman/ext/pending_removals

 - Make the script executable:
     chmod a+x /usr/local/sbin/v-unsub

 - Create the directory /home/mailman/ext
     mkdir /home/mailman/ext
     chmod 0777 /home/mailman/ext

===

Now if you send an email to volleyball-unsub it will execute the command
v-unsub which will create a file with Mailman commands inside for the
removal of users from the list "volleyball".  The created file
"pending_removals" will look something like this:
   /home/mailman/bin/remove_members volleyball jonc at haht.com
   /home/mailman/bin/remove_members volleyball lemontree at hool.com

You need to execute this file as Mailman (or root), and then delete the
file.  One easy way to do this is to write another script and then setup
that script to run out of cron.  Scripts run out of the Mailman cron will be
executed as the user mailman.

 - Write a script to run the file: pending_removals. Then delete the file.
We will call the file: /home/mailman/bin/exec_mailman
     #!/bin/bash
     # execute a program as the user mailman, requires set-up in crontab
     /home/mailman/ext/pending_removals
     rm /home/mailman/ext/pending_removals

 - Change to the user Mailman, and edit the cron table:
     su mailman
     crontab -e

# Crontable entry to auto-remove users
0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * /home/mailman/bin/exec_mailman

===

The script "exec_mailman" runs every 5 minutes, so users who email
volleyball-unsub can expect to get a message back in about 5 minutes telling
them that they are unsubscribed.

You can use this scheme to automate any number of mailman functions via
email triggers.  You can also include password checking, and origin checking
fairly easily.

Jon Carnes

BTW: you really should include an " if [ -x
/home/mailman/ext/pending_removals ] line in the script "exec_mailman or
your going to get a lot of errors indicating that the script doesn't
exist...


----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry Davis" <tdavis at birddog.com>
To: <Nissley_Ron/EMM at mail.emm.org>
Cc: <mailman-users at python.org>
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 3:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] no require password for unsubscribe?


> Hrm, ya and you cant even specify a blank password when subscribing,
> that makes things harder.
>
> Nissley_Ron/EMM at mail.emm.org wrote:
>
> > unfortunately, i don't have an answer to that one yet...i'm looking
> > though...and trying to do something similar. Most of the users on my
> > list fall into the computer illiterate category too...
> >
> > Ron
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: tdavis [mailto:tdavis at birddog.com]
> > Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 3:12 PM
> > To: mailman-users
> > Cc: tdavis
> > Subject: FW: Re: [Mailman-Users] no require password for unsubscribe?
> >
> >
> > Anyone have an answer for me here?  Here is my original question:
> > I want to be able to allow my users to unsubscribe from a list without a
> >
> > password.  How can I setup a list this way?
> >
> >
> >
> > Michael Johnson (firewing) wrote:
> >
> >
> >>If nothing else (security concerns aside), it'll alleviate confusion
> >>
> > on
> >
> >>subscribers' part who often get frustrated when they don't realize (or
> >>
> >
> >>read the message they are sent or the information pages) that to unsub
> >>
> >
> >>they need their password.
> >>
> >>At 04:44 PM 1/10/2002 -0600, you wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>I want to be able to allow my users to unsubscribe from a list
> >>>
> > without
> >
> >>>a password.  I understand this can be dangerous but this is a
> >>>controlled list and my users are going to be sub-par as far as
> >>>intelligence goes. I notice that when I do a mass subscribe, it
> >>>auto-generates a password for every user, if I could make that blank
> >>>somehow, that would rock. But would the password being blank mean
> >>>there is no password?
> >>>
> >>>Thank you!
> >>>
> >>>--
> >>>Terry Davis
> >>>Systems Administrator
> >>>BirdDog Solutions, Inc.
> >>>(402) 829-6059
> >>>www.birddog.com
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>------------------------------------------------------
> >>>Mailman-Users maillist  -  Mailman-Users at python.org
> >>>http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users
> >>>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------
> > Mailman-Users maillist  -  Mailman-Users at python.org
> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Mailman-Users maillist  -  Mailman-Users at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users