The mailing list for listmasters using Sympa

[Matt Taggart <address@concealed>]

* Chris Peck <address@concealed> [2017-08-07 08:27-0700]:
> We have a perl script that generates a list of 'inactive' lists based on
> when it was last used. We feed that into a shell script the will either
> close or purge the lists.
> to close a list = sympa.pl --close_list listname
> to purge (remove) a list = sympa.pl --purge_list listname

This is roughly what our script does too. We determine inactivity by
looking to see if the list has any mail in the archive in the last X
months (we use X = 18) but also if the list config file has been updated
in the last Y months (we use Y = 6). This latter check helps us with the
corner case of lists with archives disabled.

Our script sends mail to the list admins when it closes the list.
Usually the week after we run the script we get a couple support
tickets asking to reopen lists, which we're usually happy to do and is
easy since the list is just closed and not purged.

The next time our script runs, it checks for lists that have been
closed for more than Z months (we use Z = 4) and move their expl/arc
data off the machine to reclaim space(rather than use --purge_list).
Very rarely we have a list admin request reopening a list that was
moved off, when this happens we copy things back by hand and restore.

We call our script "ecology" rather than "trash" or "recycle", we
like to think of the old lists composting and providing more
resources for new lists to grow :)

-- 
Matt Taggart
address@concealed