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From: jamesp@metolius.wr.tek.COM (James T Perkins)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.mh
Subject: Re: Moderating a mailing list digest
Message-ID: <9008171818.AA07316@metolius.WR.TEK.COM>
Date: 17 Aug 90 18:18:30 GMT
References: <1990Aug17.151049.25935@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: "James T. Perkins" <jamesp@metolius.wr.tek.COM>
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 42


Scott, and others,

I've successfully used :include: in the aliases file with sendmail for a
mailing list for a number of years now.  Currently the list is at 156
people.  MH is wonderful for managing folders of messages for archives
and in automatic preparation of digests.

My :include: file consists of lines of addresses, a single address per
line, in the form:

	user@host.subdomain.domain (User's name)

Note that I use a single person per line, and I place the comment (the
stuff in parens) after the address.  I had difficulty at first, and
discovered it was because I was listing comments ahead of addresses.  I
also presort the addresses in this list, with the domain name being the
first key, subdomain the second key, etc.  This makes sendmail minimize
the number of connections it starts up, and keeps the load lower on the
Tek mail server.

For managing my digests, I use an alias which redirects the mail to the
stdin of a shell script.  The shell script invokes a setuid program
which spawns a second shell script, setuid to my personal uid and gid.
This second shell script uses `mhpath new +$incfolder` to determine a
new message file pathname to plop the message in.  As the message is
being deposited, I use awk to append a serial number line to the message
header "Archive-Message-Number: NNN".

Nightly, the digesting at(1) script wakes up.  It uses mhpath again to
find the messages in the incfolder.  I create my digests with awk and
shell scripts, and use mhpath.  In this way I avoid using mh commands
that would change my mh context, plus it gives me very free rein on the
format of the digest.  I make sure that the output is burstable with MH
burst, though.  I use mh's "post -dist" command to send my mail out,
using "Resent-To" fields to send the digest.

If you'd like, I'm willing to share my source code, such as it is.  It's
not terribly well-written, it's overly complex, but it's probably better
than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

James