[Mailman-Users] Automating Mailman Archive Maintenance

[C Nulk]

Hello,

I am in the process of trying to automate our Mailman Archive
maintenance before it gets unruly.  I looked in the FAQ and wiki for
information and found some about rebuilding the archives (which will be
handy) but nothing about automating it.

The assumptions I am working under:
1. the html files for the archives are located in <some
prefix>/<listname>  (to be called DIR-A)
2. the directory the mbox file to rebuild the archive html files are in
<some prefix>/<listname>.mbox  (to be called DIR-B)
3. our automated process will process the mbox files in DIR-B and delete
completely or mark for deletion any messages older than a given timeframe.

Now, the questions:
1. If I run bin/arch --wipe <listname> to rebuild the archives for
<listname>, do I have to delete the files in DIR-A first or will
bin/arch do it?

2. When a message is added to the mbox file in DIR-B, is it appended to
the file or does it get added through some interface?

3. When a message is added to the mbox file in DIR-B, are any existing
messages that are marked for deletion removed or is the message just
added to the mbox file?

4. When bin/arch is run and builds the html files, does it ignore
messages marked for deletion or does it add the message to the html
files no matter how it is marked?

5. Should Mailman be shutdown prior to running my automated process,
which includes running bin/arch, or can I leave Mailman running?

6. In our installation, the public archives directory for each list is a
link to the private archives directory for each list, is that the
standard or should I be prepared to see some archives in the public area
and other in the private depending on the particular list's setting?

7. Is there any other gotcha I should watch out for when using an
automated process?

Thanks in advance,
Chris