[Mailman-Users] Migrating lists from old system

[Doc Schneider]

Mark Sapiro wrote:
> Dwight Tovey wrote:
> 
>>Mark Sapiro said:
>>
>>>The preferred method is to move the lists/listname/* files over, rather
>>>than moving the list configuration and membership as you did.
>>>
>>
>>Not a problem.  I'm still running on the old system, so I can blow
>>everything away on the new system and start over (I should have said I
>>copied the archives instead of moved them).  Right now I'm just trying to
>>make sure that I have the procedures in place.  When I'm set I'll stop
>>smtp on the old system, transfer everything to the new system, and reset
>>the DNS pointers to the new one.  I want to make this as transparent as
>>possible for the users, so I'm testing the hell out of everything before I
>>make the switch.
>>
>>Thanks for the info.  Will Mailman translate the config.db files to
>>config.pck?
> 
> 
> In your case, I'd recommend starting with just the site list on the new
> system and then copying the lists/ and archives/ directories.
> 
> The new Mailman will automatically translate the old format files in
> lists/ as they are used.
> 
> There may be a problem with pending requests (held messages, pending
> subscriptions, etc.) if any. I'm not sure where these are in 2.0.13.
> In 2.1.5, they moved from a global data/pending.pck file to individual
> lists/listname/pending.pck files. If you upgraded a 2.0.13
> installation to 2.1.6, the upgrade would take care of it, but I don't
> know how you can 'move' this information from 2.0.13 to an already
> installed 2.1.6. It would be best to deal with as many of these as
> possible before the actual move.
> 
> And "testing the hell out of everything before" switching is definitely
> the way to go.
> 

I moved a whole lot of my lists a few months back from MM 2.0.13 to MM 
2.1.4 then upgraded to 2.1.6 not long ago.

I went through the /admindb/ of all the moving lists and whacked 
anything held in there. Most of it was spam anyway.

Then moved just the /lists/listname and archive/private/listname/ and 
archive/private/listname.mbox/ to the new mailman then ran a little 
script I wrote and placed it /var/mailman:

# cat move-em.sh
#!/bin/sh
bin/withlist -l -r fix_url $1 --urlhost=lists.maddoc.net
bin/arch --wipe $1 archives/private/$1.mbox/$1.mbox
bin/genaliases | grep $1 >>/etc/mail/aliases
bin/genaliases >/u1/lists/aliases
chown -R mailman.mailman archives

running like this.
#./move-em.sh listname

it worked for me. YMMV of course.

And I did do a lot of testing before moving them!

-Doc (Who is getting a work out today posting on Mailman troubles)