All commands are expected to be in ezmlm command address format or formatted as:

command[list@listhost[user@userhost]]

ezmlm-request when invoked with the -f switch and a configuration file (see below), ignores the subject and processes the first body line (per rules above) in conjunction with the configuration file. It also services the lists and which commands. This can be used to construct a global list interface, similar to that used by some other mailing list managers.

Messages at the list-request@host are restricted to the local list. When ezmlm-request is invoked with the -f config switch, command messages are limited to lists in config or at the local host.

Invalid requests for an existing ezmlm list will lead to a ``help'' message from ezmlm-manage(1).

-f config

Function as a global interface to ezmlm lists in accordance with config. This file consists of lines starting in the first position with ``list@host:listdir:description''. Lines that are blank or start with ``#'' are ignored. ``listdir'' and ``description'' are optional. If only ``list@host'' is given, the list is used to restrict commands (see below), but not listed. To allow the list to be shown by a ``list'' command, use ``list@host:''. To specify only the list name and description, use ``list@host::description''. If ``listdir'' is present, the which command attempts to determine if the user is a subscriber of the list. NOTE: this will work only if the user running ezmlm-request has read access to the lists subscriber database.

If ``listhost'' is not specified, ezmlm-request will use the ``listhost'' from the first config entry matching ``listlocal''. If ``listhost'' is specified, but not found in config, it is set to the contents of dir/outhost.

Alternatively, set up dir/request with an invocation of ezmlm-request. Make a link from ~/.qmail-list-request to this file.

For the global interface, place /path/ezmlm-request -f config dir into a file. Link ~/.qmail-ezmlm and ~/.qmail-ezmlm-default to this file. The latter allows ezmlm-request to handle its own bounces as well as to reply to messages to e.g. ``user-ezmlm-lists@listhost''. Create dir/inlocal and dir/outlocal with ``user-ezmlm'', dir/outhost with ``listhost'', dir/headerremove with headers to be stripped (copy from a list), dir/text/help, dir/text/top, and dir/text/bottom with the appropriate texts. Also, create config with the appropriate contents.

Mail to ``user-ezmlm@listhost'' will now be answered by ezmlm-request.

A number of commands are recognized by ezmlm-request but not processed. Instead they are mapped to help without arguments. These are: system, put, and set.

ezmlm-request also handles a number of aliases for ezmlm commands. Since ezmlm-request only passes on requests to the list, local restrictions apply. For commands that have aliases, accepted aliases are listed:

subscribe

sub

unsubscribe

unsub, signoff, remove.

index

ind.

list

recipients, showdist, review, rev, who.

Some commands are handled differently when used without arguments:

query

Treated like ``which''.

list

Treated like ``lists''.

ezmlm-request uses NUL as a line terminator internally. Thus, if will fail if NUL is found within the line it tries to interpret as a command. It is harmless, other than that the remainder of the line will be ignored.

The ezmlm-request ``which'' command does not differentiate between a list for which the command is not available, a list for which the subscriber db is not accessible, and a list for which the address is not a subscriber. This should be considered a feature.