June 2001 - Smartlist - lists.rwth-aachen.de

Trying to use file other than dist.
by KEVIN ZEMBOWER 11 Jun '01

11 Jun '01

I'm trying to do something unorthodox with SmartList. My distribution list is kept in a flat file by another program that I have to continue to use. However, the format is exactly the same as the format of dist, with the exception that there's no "Only names below this line can be automatically deleted." Unfortunately, that means that none of the addresses can be automatically unsubscribed. What I've tried to do was to unlink dist and accept, delete dist and replace it in the directory with either a soft- or hard-link to the other file. This seems to work with subscribing, but says that the name can't be found to unsubscribe automatically. Is there a way to turn off this feature, so that if the line is missing, ALL addresses in the file can be automatically unsubscribed? Or, if this is not possible, is there another work-around that allows me to use the other file in place of dist? Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions on my problem. -Kevin Zembower ----- E. Kevin Zembower Unix Administrator Johns Hopkins University/Center for Communications Programs 111 Market Place, Suite 310 Baltimore, MD 21202 410-659-6139

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Where are docs on bounce handling?
by KEVIN ZEMBOWER 11 Jun '01

11 Jun '01

I must have missed this somewhere in my reading about SmarList. Could someone tell me where to find the documentation on how SmartList handles email that bounces because of incorrect email addresses, full mailboxes, etc. I'm looking for something more than the schematic overview in section 3m of the Manual. Thanks for your help pointing this out. -Kevin Zembower ----- E. Kevin Zembower Unix Administrator Johns Hopkins University/Center for Communications Programs 111 Market Place, Suite 310 Baltimore, MD 21202 410-659-6139

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Create a footer text
by Maren Landschulze 06 Jun '01

06 Jun '01

Hi, I am trying to set up a list that sends a footer text with every mail. I followed the instructions in the manuals and FAQs, but still no footer appears on the mails that are send to the list. The command I used looks as follows: # # Appending a disclaimer to every outgoing mail: # :0 fbw | cat - footer.txt Any help will be greatly appreciated!! Maren

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Approving messages from those not on accept list
by Anne Judge 05 Jun '01

05 Jun '01

I've just moved over from Majordomo, where if I wanted to forward a message from a non-member of a closed (subscriber-only posting) list to that list, even if the list was NOT set up as moderated, I could use the "approved:" formulation to do so. Is there any way to do this in Smartlist? I've been through the FAQs & list archive and can't find a simple straight answer. More details: So I have a list that's closed - accept is linked to dist, and there's an accept2 for a few alternate addresses of list members, and all is well and good. It's a forum for club-member discussion, and pretty much all of what comes from other sources, if not spam, is more properly routed by the list maintainer (using a simple redirect) to a specific club director. However, every once and a while, someone asks a question (usually "where should I take scuba lessons?") that I would like to forward on to the list, but keeping the original sender as "from" (i.e. use redirect to send it to the list again). I guess I could add the sender to accept2, redirect the message back to the list, then restore accept2. But that's a real pain. What I want to do is add the "Approved: [password]" line like I did in Majordomo. But Smartlist (unlike Majordomo) only seems to have provision for this when the list is set up as moderated. Am I missing something? Anne

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stochastic spam detection
by John Conover 05 Jun '01

05 Jun '01

Attached is a ~/.procmailrc fragment that evaluates e-mail header construction of e-mail messages to determine the probability that an e-mail message is spam. The numbers were derived by analyzing two large e-mail repositories; one containing only spam, the other containing only non-spam. Let A be the number of messages in the spam archive that have a certain header characteristic divided by the total number of messages in the spam archive, and B be the number of messages in the non-spam archive that have the same characteristic divided by the total number of messages in the non-spam archive. (A is the likelihood of a spam message containing the characteristic, and B is the likelihood of a false positive.) Do this for many characteristics, dividing A by B, and picking the half dozen, or so, largest values to determine which characteristics will be used. Use the negative of the natural logarithm of B in the attached recipe. Example: For a spam archive, of 1000 messages, where 600 have a common characteristic; A = 600 / 1000 = 0.6. For a non-spam archive, of 2000 messages, where 2 have the same common characteristic; B = 2 / 2000 = 0.001. A / B = 0.6 / 0.001 = 600. If 600 is larger than any other A / B values for the half dozen other characteristics, then one of the other characteristics should be replaced with this one. The value used in the recipe would be ln (B) = ln (0.001) = -6.90775527898: * 6.90775527898^0 test_for_some_characteristic which should be included in the last recipe in the attached. The way it works is that that values, (6.90775527898 in the example,) for each characteristic that is true for a specific message are added together. Since the values are logarithms, this sum is a product. And, since the values represent probabilities of false positives, the chances of a total false positive are reduced with each true characteristic, significantly, (assuming the characteristics are statistically independent.) Note that no single characteristic (orbs, etc.,) is capable of generating a false positive, resulting in an inappropriately trashed message. It turns out to be about 70-85 percent effective, (but one can tinker with the sigma limits, and probably tweek a little more out of it.) The characteristics used in the attached recipe require: 1) A sendmail.cf, (or equivalent,) configuration that puts "... (unknown ... in a "Received: " record if RDNS fails for the HELO. 2) Some method of verifying whether the IP address contained in a "Received: " record is a black listed host. (I used, http://www.johncon.com/john/receivedIP/index.html, but rblcheck(1), etc., can be used just as well.) 3) The name of your smtp host, somesmtpserverdomain.com. 4) Your e-mail address, someone(a)somedomain.com. but can be modified to suit. (It was originally written to cut down spam in a mailing list running smartlist.) John -- John Conover conover(a)email.rahul.net http://www.johncon.com/ ###################################################################### # # Save the trusted return address. # :0 whc SENDER=| formail -rtzx To: # # Save the machine generated return address. # :0 whc FROM=| formail -rzx To: # # If the IP address in any "Received: " record is black listed, set # ORBS to 1, else 0. # # (Note: this uses the off line black list from: # http://www.johncon.com/john/receivedIP/index.html. Use any convenient # method to set ORBS 1 if black listed, 0 if not, like rblcheck(1), # etc.) # ORBS="0" # :0 * ? test -f "${HOME}/.procmail.reject" * ? /usr/local/bin/receivedIPdb "${HOME}/.procmail.reject" { ORBS="1" } # # If the smtp server had to generate the "Message-Id: " record, and the # message is not from someone in the smtp server's domain, set # MSGIDGENERATED to 1, else 0. # MSGIDGENERATED="0" # :0 * -3^0 * 2^0 ^message-id:.*somesmtpserverdomain\.com * 2^0 !^(from|reply-to):.*somesmtpserverdomain\.com { MSGIDGENERATED="1" } # # Evaluate header construction. # :0 * 6.35899699817^0 !^to: * 2.31011481332^0 !^(to|cc):.*someone@somedomain\.com * 5.05971401614^0 ^received:.*\(unknown +.*by.*somesmtpserverdomain\.com * 6.07131492861^0 ? test ${ORBS} != "0" * 7.45760928973^0 ? test ${SENDER} != ${FROM} * 3.87409035224^0 ? test ${MSGIDGENERATED} != "0" * 16^0 ^x-advertisement: * 16^0 ^subject:.*adv(ertise(ment)?.*)?(:|$) { HEADERSCORE = $= # # Sigma values: # # 1.84102164502 = ln (1 sigma false positive), 1 in 6.30297437513 # 3.78318433404 = ln (2 sigma false positive), 1 in 43.9557890318 # 6.60772622151 = ln (3 sigma false positive), 1 in 740.796695584 # 10.3601014878 = ln (4 sigma false positive), 1 in 31,574.3873622 # 15.0649983951 = ln (5 sigma false positive), 1 in 3,488,555.79111 # # Greater than 5 sigma chance of false positive can be safely # trashed. Raising the value from 5 sigma to 4 sigma increases # spam rejection, at the risk of false positives. # :0 * -15.0649983951^0 * $$HEADERSCORE^0 /dev/null # # Greater than 1 sigma chance of false positive, but less than 5 # sigma, is filed in the junk folder for evaluation; less than 1 # sigma has a significant probability of being non-spam. Raising # the value from 1 sigma to 0 increases spam rejection, at the # risk of false positives, which will be filed in the junk folder. # Decreasing the value to 2 sigma increases the risk of false # negatives, which will be passed. # :0: * -1.84102164502^0 * $$HEADERSCORE^0 junk } # ######################################################################

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Web front ends for SMARTList?
by David S April 04 Jun '01

04 Jun '01

Hi all! Can anyone recommend a good web front end for SMARTList. I want to get archive access up and web posting up and working. hanks in advance. Dave -- David S. April Syclo LLC april(a)syclo.com 1250 S Grove Av - Suite 304 (847) 842-0320 Barrington, IL 60010-5066 http://www.soasoas.com/ "Paradise is exactly like where you are right now, only much, much *better*." - Laurie Anderson

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Pb with daemon_bias
by Francois Sauterey 04 Jun '01

04 Jun '01

Well, I've a a web based sub/unsub process and I 've the 'X-Diagnostic: Mail coming from a daemon, ignored' problem. I'll work around the daemon_bias variable, but I can't fixe the problem... Here is the headers of the unsub request... how to set the daemon_bias ? >Return-Path: <les-iris-request(a)ras.eu.org> >Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2001 18:24:57 +0200 >X-Authentication-Warning: ernesto.ras.eu.org: list set sender to les-iris-request(a)ras.eu.org using -f >X-From_: les-iris-request(a)iris.sgdg.org Sat Jun 2 18:24:57 2001 >To: some.body(a)wanadoo.fr >Subject: Re: unsubscribe some.body(a)wanadoo.fr >X-Loop: les-iris(a)iris.sgdg.org >From: les-iris-request(a)iris.sgdg.org >X-Diagnostic: Processed >X-Diagnostic: Mail coming from a daemon, ignored >X-Diagnostic: Possible loopback problem >X-Envelope-To: les-iris-request >>From some.body(a)wanadoo.fr Sat Jun 2 18:24:56 2001 >>Received: (from www-data@localhost) >> by ernesto.ras.eu.org (8.9.3/8.9.3/Debian 8.9.3-21) id SAA15436; >> Sat, 2 Jun 2001 18:24:56 +0200 >>Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2001 18:24:56 +0200 >>From: some.body(a)wanadoo.fr >>Message-Id: <200106021624.SAA15436(a)ernesto.ras.eu.org> >>X-Authentication-Warning: ernesto.ras.eu.org: www-data set sender to some.body(a)wanadoo.fr using -f -- Francois Sauterey Tel: +33 1 40 33 68 46 email: Francois(a)Sauterey.eu.org

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