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ListProc 7.2 Release Notes
Release Date: August 30, 1995
CONTENTS
- Fixed a bug with CONFIG ... DISABLE or ENABLE. ListProc would not let a manager disable/enable requests at random.
- Fixed a bug with CONFIG ... ARCHIVE where the first dash would not expand.
- Fixed a bug with UNLOCK where the .time.* file would not be removed. The result of this is if one edits (with locking) the lists subscribers and aliases file, then UNLOCK's the list. The next time any file is edited, it will appear that the subscribers and aliases file are also being edited.
- Fixed a bug with Confirm, when the following option was set for a list:
send-by-[owner|subscriber]-confirm
any trailing blanks in the
Confirm: pw
line in the posting to the list was matched against the password and causing the message to be rejected. Trailing blanks are now ignored. The log message was also revised to give clearer diagnostics.
- Fixed a bug with FUI. If an FUI-able archive has sub-archives, ListProc will tell users to provide a password when one is not necessary.
- Fixed a bug with SET... mail ACK|NOACK from DIGEST. In the case when the mail mode was fixed to DIGEST (i.e. the list is only distributed as a digest), when subscribers reset their mail mode from digest, they received a partial digest, thus negating the lists' settings.
- Fixed a bug with binaries using/working with environment variables. ULISTPROC_ARCHIVES_UMASK was simply ignored.
- Fixed a bug with COMPRESSED_ARCHIVES. It caused the system files FST, SFT and FMT to be compressed also, thus nullifying AFD/FUI functionality.
- Fixed a security hole with manager privileges; requests effected are hold, free, lock, unlock, purge, archive, put and configuration.
- Fixed a bug with error_analysis: errors that contain | & [] and other "regular expression" characters may cause a subscribers mail mode to reset to POSTPONE. These characters are now converted to spaces.
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We have made some significant changes in the behavior of Newsgroup - Mailing lists. This is especially apparent in for Moderated lists/newsgroups. I hope that these changes are consistent with the input we have received from various sites running moderated list-moderated newsgroup gateways.
In summary:
- If a list is moderated, an Approved: header is put when sending to the newsgroup moderators (if any) or when posting with inews.
- If an article comes in with an Approved: header, ListProc considers the message already approved and posts it to the list, bypassing the lists moderator if the list is moderated-edit. If the list is moderated-no-edit, ListProc follows the normal path and requests approval from the moderator.
Reasoning:
- There is no way to know at the moment an article is posted if the group is moderated. So the assumption on moderated lists is that a similar restriction (moderated) will apply to a newsgroups to which it is posting.
- If the list is configured moderated-edit, then an article sent to the moderators for approval will be duplicated at the newsgroup if indeed the article is approved by the moderators. This is because a message sent to the list by the owners/moderators can not be classified as approval of mail or approval of the article, therefore .. message from privileged users are always posted to the newsgroup.
- For lists that are configured moderated-no-edit, an incoming article still needs approval. This is done because it would be easy for anyone to add an Approved: header. Since "catmail" is involved here, it can not know if the sender is a news feed or a regular user.
- X- Headers are not forwarded to the newsgroup or its moderator.
- The cc: header is removed when posting an article or sending to the groups moderator.
- The To: header appears only when sending to the groups moderator (this is currently true). Other times ... it is removed.
- The Approved: header is added only if the list is moderated. This way, a message has at least been approved by the List's moderator.
Here is a table of configuration options and the expected behavior on newsgroups:
OPTION BEHAVIOR
SEND-BY-OWNERS-CONFIRM incoming articles rejected
SEND-BY-OWNERS incoming articles rejected
SEND-BY-SUBSCRIBERS-CONFIRM incoming articles rejected
SEND-BY-SUBSCRIBERS incoming articles OK
SEND-BY-ALL incoming articles OK
UNMODERATED incoming articles OK
MODERATED-EDIT Newsgroup has to be moderated so that
the Approved: header line is sent with
incoming articles, otherwise the same
article will be reposted.
MODERATED-NO-EDIT Newsgroup can be moderated or
unmoderated. All incoming postings will
need moderated approval
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Tools
- A utility for checking and verifying the behavior of regular expressions in the .aliases and .ignored file is now provided. This program is called dblpfiles (data base list proc files). It will tell you the effect of the alias or ignored on a specific address. It is an interactive program.
New Config File Directives
These are new statements that effect your ListProc config file. In some cases, they are optional, in others ListProc will not start unless the change is made. Those required changes are highlighted with an "*".
- global-query-server <address> <host> [port]
NOTE: CREN no longer hosts a global list database.
This defines the host for the global list queries. ListProc now has the ability to make available to your site remote lists by defining this server. A site no longer has to maintain the file remote.lists (but may choose to do so).
If the file remote.lists does not exist on the local host or the list is not defined in the local remote.lists, ListProc will then connect to the "global-query-server" for processing of that request. CREN will maintain a "global-query-server" and the following line will connect you to it:
global-query-server listproc@listproc.listproc.net listproc.listproc.net
In this case, no port is specified because the CREN query_server listens on the default port of 372.
- global-update-server <address> <time>
ListProc now has the ability to define a server which will cause local lists to be published in the CREN global list database. (See New List Configuration Options below). This config file directive tells ListProc where to send information about list which the site wants to widely disseminate goes to and when each day will ListProc process this information. (This information is updated daily). The following will send updates to CREN's "global-update-server" daily at 04:00 local time:
global-update-server global-update-server@listproc.listproc.net 0400
NOTE: If no "global-update-server" is defined, lists which are configured to be disseminated in this fashion will not be.
- option multiple_listprocs
If this config file option is defined, ListProc will not send notification to users telling them that their request has been forwarded because the list is not local. This is useful for sites that are running multiple copies of ListProc and want to make the distribution and dissemination of lists transparent to end users by providing them with the address of a "smart" server.
- option readonly_subscribers_files
This options disables PUT ... SUBSCRIBERS by owners. It was requested by some sites where owners were putting back invalid files.
* server listproc@host.domain host.domain
The server keyword in the config file now requires a host name argument. This should be the fully qualified host name of the machine running ListProc. This is used by the server when sending a lists of "published lists" to the "global-update-server".
WARNING: serverd will not start unless the server line is modified to the new syntax.
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New Configuration Directives
- PUBLISHED-LIST
UNPUBLISHED-LIST
This directive makes the list appear/not appear in the database maintained by CREN's global-update-server. This means that the list will be available for people outside the organization to query, subscribe ...
It is important for a published list to have a COMMENT field that describes the list because that description is what will be used to describe the list and search for keywords on, and; an info file so that people who are interested can get more information on what the list is about.
Because of the potential impact that PUBLISHED can have on the subscriber base and mail load, only the site manager can make a list published. The default for all lists that are created and converted is UNPUBLISHED. To make a list PUBLISHED, the standard config command is given, i.e.
config list-name pw published
NOTE: HIDDEN-LIST turns off PUBLISHED if it is set.
General Features/Changes
- The ListProc Search command is now case insensitive
- NO-AUTO-DELETE is now the default for new lists.
- serverd now prints the uid it starts under, if the -e flag is given to the command line. It will always report this in the report/log file.
- The user command "list global" now contacts the global-query-server if not local remote.lists file exists.
- There is a new site manager option CCDUP. Managers will now only see duplicate messages if CCDUP is set.
- CCIGNORE is now a valid manager option. The manager will be notified when requests are ignored, i.e. when a mail address matching an entry in the .ignored file sends in a request to ListProc, the manager will be notified if CCIGNORE is set. Previously, the manager was always notified.
- Replace all the \t in sense_request in the config file to real tabs. It was incorrect to use \t as the entire string is converted to uppercase, which means \t became \T which is not a tab.
- Externalized all internal ignore_requests regular expressions and put them in the supplied config file.
- Added a new flag to farch, -R, which removes archives and all subarchives.
- The owner "alias" request no longer adds the new alias to the top level alias file. This is now done to "protect" the top level file from owner regular expression mistakes.
- The following options are now MANAGER-CONTROLLED
MESSAGE-LIMIT
NO-MESSAGE-LIMIT
AUTO-DELETE
NO-AUTO-DELETE
- New manager command
global config <pw> [args]
will change the configuration for every local list with one command.
WARNING: Be aware that the configuration that the manager chooses may be incompatible with owner configurations .. (i.e. globally making lists published will defeat them being hidden).
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ListProc 7.2 now allows the creation and granting of privileges to an archive. Archives are owned independently of mailing-lists.
The syntax for the archive command is:
- archive <archive name> <password> <action> [args]
- ARCHIVE <name> <manager-pw> CREATE|MODIFY <password XXX>
[, directory <dir | ->]
[, private <user-password> | public]
[, compressed | uncompressed] [, split [chunk size] | unsplit]
[, afd-fui | no-afd-fui] [, owner <addr> [privs]]
[, remove-owner <addr> [addr] ..]
- where privs=UPDATE|ADD|DELETE (default: none). UPDATE turns on ADD too.
- If the archive exists, this request will make the specified updates.
- A password (XXX) is required for owner access; if the archive is associated with a list (which already has a password associated), then list owner may use the list's password, but other archive owners will be required to use XXX.
- private specifies whether the archive will require a password (provided for user access (public is the default).
- uncompressed is the default.
- unsplit is the default (if split, the chunk default size is 64K).
- no-afd-fui is the default.
- at least one owner is required.
NOTE: changing compression mode on the fly while files are archived may cause afd/fui problems with currently archived files, therefore such requests are rejected and the user is told to use compressed-override or uncompressed-override if he does not want to remove the archived files first. Here is the message the user will see when trying to change the compression mode:
file is updated, the AFD/FUI mechanism will not work correctly and users will receive multiple notifications. Such files need to be deleted from the archive before they are updated. To suppress this error message and force the new configuration to be accepted anyhow, use COMPRESSED-OVERRIDE Do so only if no files are currently archived.
- ARCHIVE <name> <manager-pw> REMOVE
This will remove the specified archive...
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- ARCHIVE <name> <pw> REVIEW
This will return the archive's settings...
- ARCHIVE <name> <pw> UPDATE|ADD <filename> [description]
begin text
.
.
.
end text
This will archive the included text as filename... If the file exists, its contents will be updated UPDATE specified.
- ARCHIVE <name> <pw> DELETE <filename> [filename]....
This will delete the archived filename...
All of the above assume proper privileges, of course...
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- A new archive file will be maintained in addition to DIR, INDEX, SFT, FST and FMT: CONFIG. It contains configuration information and owner definitions.
- New version of the ilp client: 3.1; and new flag -V to show the version. This client does not evaluate the contents of PUT and ARCHIVE requests, which means it does not look for redirections and or pipes.
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