[Mailman-Users] Migrating many lists

[Kevin McCann]

> Hi
>
> We have just installed Mailman and are in the process of testing the
system. Part of
> our migration from Lyris to Mailman involves the moving over of approx. 70
lists to
> Mailman. These are are classified as open, closed, moderated, unmoderated
etc.
> Some of these lists have their own list specific footers and headers,
welcome docs
> etc.
>
> I'd like to know which is the best and most efficient way to create these
lists. Do we
> just create them one at a time or is there a tool or template that allows
for mass
> migration of lists that have similar settings.

There are three things you'll want to export and import. Two of them will be
easy, the third one, which is what you're specifically asking about, is
trickier.

You'll need to do the following for *each* list:

For exporting members, use the "members.pl" script which is found in the
collection of scripts found in the URL I am providing below. You'll need to
take the resulting file and break it into two text files, one for normal
users, the other for digest users. You'll then use these as input for the
mailman command that adds members, which is "add_members". For each list
you'll do this after the list is created.

For exporting message archives, use the 'exp-arc.pl" script. This will
create "mbox" files that can be used to recreate pipermail versions of the
archives once your mailman list is created.

Finally - and this is what you were specifically asking about - there is a
script called "list-exp.pl" that exports a list's settings into a text file.
In theory you could use the resultant data as input for the mailman commands
that create and configure your lists, which are "newlist" and "create_list"
respectively.

Here is the URL where will you find an assortment of Lyris scripts,
including the ones I mentioned:

http://www.lyris.com/products/listmanager/lm_6.1/scripts.html

(should this be added to a FAQ somwhere? I suspect there will be more people
who will migrate from Lyris to Mailman due to criminally exorbitant
licensing fees, a desire to support open source instead, etc.)

- Kevin