34.2. The Majordomo List Manager Module
This module allows you to set up and manage multiple Majordomo mailing lists on your system. It is designed to interface with the Sendmail Configuration module to set up the mail aliases that Majordomo needs to operate, but can be used with any mail server that uses an /etc/aliases file. If you are not using Sendmail, see Section 34.3 “Using Other Mail Servers” for details on how to configure the module to work with your server. If Webmin detects that Sendmail is not installed, an error message will be displayed on the main page notifying you that its configuration file cannot be found.
Like other email-related modules, this one can be found under the Servers category in Webmin. When you enter it, the main page displays a table of icons—one for each mailing list on your system. Figure 34.1 shows an example.
Figure 34.1. The Majordomo module main page.
For Majordomo to operate, it requires that you define the Majordomo and Majordomo-owner mail aliases and forward messages to the Majordomo program and the list administrator, respectively. If the module detects that these aliases do not exist (usually because you have never set up Majordomo or used the module before), a field labeled Owner email address will be displayed on the main page.
You must enter the address of the master mailing list administrator (usually yourself) into this field and hit the Setup Aliases button. The necessary aliases will be created, and the main page re-displayed without the button and field. Until you do this, Majordomo will not work properly—people will not be able to subscribe and unsubscribe, get information about existing mailing lists, and so on.
Naturally, if the module cannot find Majordomo on your system at all, the main page will display an error message instead of any of the icons and fields mentioned. If you are sure that it really is installed, read Section 34.16 “Configuring the Majordomo List Manager Module” for instructions on how to adjust the paths that the module uses to find the configuration files and programs.
Only a few operating systems and versions of Linux come with Majordomo as standard, such as OpenLinux, SuSE Linux, MSC.Linux, Debian Linux, and AIX. If you are running one of these, check your operating system CD or website for the Majordomo package and install it using the Software Packages module. Users of all other operating systems will need to download, compile, and install the source code from www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/. The module assumes that you will use the package on systems that have it, and the source code if not. If you installed the source even though there was a package available, or used a package that I don't know about, you will need to adjust the paths on the module configuration page.
If you are already an extensive user of Majordomo, the module should find and display all your existing lists and their settings. It depends, however, on the majordomo.cf not being too different from the original format so it can be parsed properly. If you have made extensive modifications to this file, the module may not find some or all of your lists.
Neither does it deal well with multiple virtual email domains. Some systems have one Majordomo configuration file for each domain, and possibly multiple alias files as well. The only way to use the module in this situation is to clone it once for each domain (as explain in Chapter 51), and configure each clone to use a different majordomo.cf file.