[X-Servers] Listserver questions

[James Bucanek]

Bob Bergey wrote on Thursday, March 17, 2005:

>I ordered my first Xserve a few days ago and should have it in about 
>a week, I hope. It will replace an older desktop G3 that's currently 
>running Macjordomo to serve about 30 lists I manage (under OS 9.2.2).
>
>I'm planning to migrate the lists to Mailman on the new Xserve, of 
>course. I have a few questions I haven't found answers to yet -- 
>maybe I'll find them in the documentation for the new machine when it 
>arrives, but thought I'd ask here awhile anyway so I can plan 
>properly for time to move the lists.

You won't find any documentation with the XServe.  The docs that come with the XServe cover the XServe hardware and the Apple provided software for control and mantenance.  All third-party software (Mailman, Postfix, ...) is documented "elsewhere."

So, you'll need to hit the Mailman docs (such as they are) for the answers you seek.

>Are there tools included that will make it easier to move the lists 
>to the new machine? I'm concerned about a couple of lists that have 
>between 500 and 1000 subscribers; some are very active and I want to 
>minimize any down time between moving from one machine to the other.

The Mailman web interface provides for a "Mass subscribe" of multiple addresses at once.  Just paste your list into the text field and click on Import (or Subscribe, or whatever the button is named).  Quick an painless: Stop new subscriptions on your old like, export the membership list, import them into Mailman, tell everyone to stop using the old list.

>Regarding archives ... I know Mailman can archive automatically; are 
>the archives searchable?

Not by default.  Or, at least, not in the configuration that ships with the XServe.  I think to make searchable archives, you have to hook Mailman's archive function with an external process or plug-in to export the archives into some other format.  You could then use something like MySQL or a file-based search procedure to search them.  I've never done it, but I think there are links/instructions on the Mailman website that should get you started.

<http://mailman.sourceforge.net/>

-- 
James Bucanek <mailto:privatereply at gloaming.com>