A mailing list address is a special address created through the alias file or alias database; see Chapter 3 for general background on aliases, the alias file, and alias database. Associated with each mailing list address is a text file which contains one or more mail addresses, or an LDAP URL that returns one or more mail addresses. Note that an LDAP query URL may return multiple addresses either because the LDAP query matches multiple entries containing a desired attribute(s), or because the LDAP query matches a multivalued attribute of a single entry.) This text file or LDAP URL is sometimes referred to as the mailing list or distribution list. When a message is received by PMDF for the mailing list address, the message is then passed on to each address specified in the mailing list file or LDAP URL . Note that addresses in that file or addresses returned by the LDAP URL may themselves be aliases or mailing list addresses.
A mailing list address alias with associated
mailing list file file-spec is specified in the
alias file with an entry of the form
alias: <file-spec, named-parameters, error-return-address, \
reply-to-address, errors-to-address, \
warnings-to-address, comments
A mailing list address alias with associated LDAP
URL ldap-url is specified in the alias file with
an entry of the form
alias: <ldap-url, named-parameters, error-return-address, \
reply-to-address, errors-to-address, \
warnings-to-address, comments
Similar definitions may also be made in the alias database, (though of
course omitting the colon, as just white space separates the alias from
its definition in the alias database).
The parameters following the file specification,
file-spec, or LDAP URL,
ldap-url, are optional.
file-spec must be a full file path specification
(device, directory, etc.). All files included in this fashion
should, like the alias file itself, be world readable.¹ Addresses
should appear one per line in this file and be in RFC 822 format; the
addresses may either be "real" addresses or further aliases
(but not of the form "alias:
<file-spec". Mailing list files may include
comment lines as well as references to include files via the include
operator, <.
ldap-url must be a standard LDAP URL, with the
host and port omitted; (host and port are instead specified via the
LDAP_HOST and LDAP_PORT PMDF options; see Section 7.3.2 . That is,
ldap:///dn[?attributes[?scope[?filter]]]where
dn is required and is a distinguished name
specifying the search base. The optional
attributes, scope, and
filter portions of the URL further refine what
information to return. For a mailing list, the desired
attributes to specify returning would typically
be the mail attribute (or some similar attribute). The
scope may be any of base (the
default), one, or sub. And the desired
filter might be to request the return of all
objects that are in Department X or that have, say, the
"member-of-list-y" attribute. Certain substitution sequences
may be used to construct the LDAP search URL; see Table 3-1 for
details.
The action of parameters that can add headers can be modified by the special characters shown in Table 4-1 , by appending the special character at the end of the value for the parameter.
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
| Insert if not already present; inserts as a Resent- if already present | |
| * | Only insert if not already present |
| & | Insert if not already present; add to old field if already present |
| ^ | Delete any old field present; always insert the new field |
| \ | Delete old field and don't insert a new one |
Note:
If you are using a compiled configuration, then you must recompile (and on OpenVMS reinstall) the configuration in order for a change to the primary alias file, PMDF_ALIAS_FILE, to take effect. Changes made to mailing list files referenced in the alias file take effect immediately; that is, recompiling the PMDF configuration is not necessary in order for changes in mailing list files to take effect.
Note:
Mailing lists may be tested with the PMDF TEST/REWRITE/CHECK_EXPANSIONS (OpenVMS) orpmdf test -rewrite -check_expansions(UNIX and NT) utility. See for details.
pmdf account on UNIX.