The mailing list for listmasters using Sympa

["Malcolm Waltz" <address@concealed>]

Hi Philip,

I would just simply create a list and then edit the include_file option,
all using the web interface (at least to start).

The include file should at minimum, contain a list of email addresses,
one per line.  You can optionally place the full name of the member
(gecos), after the email address as long as it is separated by white
space (tab or space I believe).

In our environment we have 30 such include_file lists, plus lists that
combine members from those lists (include_list).  The include_file lists
are auto-populated via Banner exports, which get "pushed" to our list
server via scp (error-checked, then moved into place by a cron job).

To create all of those lists, I created a list using the web interface
and tweaked it the way I wanted it.  I then created a new list template
based on that list and used the "--create_list" option with sympa.pl to
automate the generation of the 40+ lists (as follows).

sympa.pl --create_list --robot <list-domain> --input_file
/path/to/file.xml

The XML file mostly just contains the name of the list, the name of the
template (type) and the data to match the variables in the template.
There are some required fields in the XML file.  The sample below, is
almost the minimum.  I also found the documentation a little confusing
regarding this method.

On our system, the templates are located here (yours may differ):
~sympa/default/create_list_templates

I suggest comparing a template with the config file of a list that was
created using that template.  This should give you some insight into how
to format your own template.

Here's a sample XML file (hopefully this will not get munged):

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
  <list>
    <listname>mylist</listname>
    <type>mylisttemplate</type>
    <subject>My list subject</subject>
    <owner multiple="1">
      <email>address@concealed</email>
      <reception>mail</reception>
      <profile>privileged</profile>
      <visibility>noconceal</visibility>
    </owner>
    <description>my list description</description>
    <include_file>/full/path/to/membership/file</include_file>
  </list>

Generate a new XML file for each list (I automated this using perl and a
CSV file).  As far as I know, you can control any option in the
resulting list config file by using the XML file and having a
corresponding variable in the list template.  I ran the sympa.pl command
as the sympa user.

Good luck,

Malcolm Waltz
Unix Systems Administrator III
Office of Information Technology
University of the Pacific


-----Original Message-----
From: address@concealed [mailto:address@concealed] On
Behalf Of Philip Brown
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 10:05 AM
To: address@concealed
Subject: RE: [sympa-users] how to use data sources

thanks Malcom... erm..
how would you recommend we create such a list, starting from scratch,
though?

log into web interface as listmaster, create list, and then manually
tweak
url?

or create list on command line, and then manually edit config file?
(and if so, which command line options would be recommended?)


(it would also be nice if the docs for sympa were updated to include
such
 examples in the "create list" section)