Mailman

Mailman is a mailing list management system. It is used in conjunction with a mail server.

Installation

Install the mailman3 package.

Note: mailman3 will replace mailmanAUR in the near future. As both applications make use of /var/lib/mailman as state directory and the mailman user, they currently conflict and can not be installed alongside each other.

Mailman can be used in conjunction with Postorius (for configuration) and Hyperkitty (for archiving).

Note: Mailman runs as a dedicated mailman user, therefore any calls to the mailman executable have to be done as the mailman user.

Configuration

All configuration for Mailman takes place in /etc/mailman.cfg. The schema explaining all possible configuration options and setting the defaults is stored in /usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/mailman/config/schema.cfg.

The configuration is also accessible via the command line. Run the following command as the mailman user (e.g. using sudo or su):

[mailman]$ mailman conf

Database

Mailman by default uses an SQLite database in /var/lib/mailman/data/, but can be configured to use MariaDB or PostgreSQL.

SQLite

The default location for the SQLite database is already reflected in the schema.cfg and therefore does not have to be set in Mailman's configuration.

/etc/mailman.cfg
[database]
url: sqlite:////var/lib/mailman/data/mailman.db

MariaDB

Install the python-pymysql package and configure a database on MariaDB.

PostgreSQL

Install the package and create a database using PostgreSQL.

REST API

Mailman exposes its REST API based on the settings in the section of the configuration. Make sure to replace the default values for and admin_pass (do not use the example values below).

ARC

By default DMARC and DKIM are disabled. The configuration takes place in the section of the configuration file. Make sure to set necessary values and read the documentation about the defaults.

MTA

To connect a mail-transfer-agent (MTA), it is necessary to configure the section in the configuration file. Upstream documentation covers examples for postfix, exim and sendmail, but other MTAs are technically possible.

Postfix

To connect to a local postfix instance the following configuration section can be used:

The postfix configuration has to be extended to ensure compatibility (see upstream notes).

Additionally, postfix needs to be made aware of mailman's transport maps. Depending on the postfix configuration these may look similar to the following.

If is not directly accessible by mailman for creating the default hash-based alias maps, it is possible to generate regular expression based alias maps instead. To overwrite the default Python-class based configuration, mailman allows the use of a configuration file. Create the following file:

/etc/postfix-mailman.cfg
[postfix]
postmap_command: /usr/bin/postmap
transport_file_type: regex

Add the file to the section in mailman's configuration file.

/etc/mailman.cfg
[mta]
''[..]''
configuration: /etc/postfix-mailman.cfg

Afterwards the based exports can then be used in the postfix configuration.

To connect to a local postfix instance with a virtual mail setup, first set an alias domain. Afterwards alter the respective configuration.

Running

Enable and start .

Several systemd services with timers exist, taking care of various aspects of the list management:

  • : for sending out daily digests to subscribers
  • : for hourly polling of NNTP servers for news
  • : for sending out daily notifications to admins about pending requests

Setup

Integrate with Hyperkitty

Mailman does not automatically archive mails on its own. The Hyperkitty web application is used for this purpose. Based on a plugin, mailman is able to send mails to a Hyperkitty instance for archival.

Install the package and configure .

/etc/mailman-hyperkitty.cfg
[general]
base_url: https://example.tld/hyperkitty/
api_key: super_secret_password

Afterwards, make mailman aware of the plugin:

/etc/mailman.cfg
[archiver.hyperkitty]
class: mailman_hyperkitty.Archiver
enable: yes
configuration: /etc/mailman-hyperkitty.cfg

Tips and tricks

Migrate from mailman < 3.0

Mailman offers the possibility of importing mailman < 3.0 based list databases (). Run the following command as the mailman user (e.g. using sudo or su):

[mailman]$ mailman import21 LISTSPEC PICKLE_FILE

Here, represents a fully-qualified name of a list to import (e.g. ) and the path to the list's file.

REST API

Mailman exposes a REST API, which can be interfaced using custom tooling, based on .

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See also
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