Pitt Postmaster Mailing List Creation

Creating and using an AMDS distribution list

Place the addresses into a file in your /afs/pitt.edu home directory. Each address should be separated from the next with a comma. Usually, each address will be on a line by itself (along with a comma).

There are two special lines which you will need to place at the beginning of the distribution list for it to work properly:

AMDS distribution lists provide an easy way to make sure delivery errors resulting from mail addressed to the distribution list are sent to the maintainer of the list instead of to the sender. Include a line at the very beginning of the distribution list file like this:
```
Distribution-errors-to: username+@pitt.edu
```
Obviously, you will fill in your address in place of "username+@pitt.edu".
The next line in the file is mandatory:
```
Distribution-content: 
```
The list of recipients must follow this line.

Here's a sample distribution list:

$ cat bucket-l.dl
Distribution-errors-to: droopy+@pitt.edu
Distribution-content:
; a semi-colon at the beginning of the line makes the line a comment
; a blank line is also a "comment"
user1@machine1.site1.edu,
user2@machine2.site2.edu,
user3@machine3.site3.org

To send mail to the recipients listed in the distribution list, address your mail message:

To: +dist+~username/list.dl@pitt.edu

Replace "username" with your own username and "list.dl" with the pathname of your distribution list. For example, user "droopy" in the example above would address his mail message:

To: +dist+~droopy/bucket-l.dl@pitt.edu

The "+dist+" part is mandatory; it tells the delivery system that the rest of the address (until the "@" character) specifies the full pathname of the distribution list. You can use the "~username" syntax to avoid typing the full pathname to your directory.

Other users can send mail to the recipients in the distribution list using the same syntax listed above, so long as they are able to access the file. Usually, the directory containing the lists is world-readable. If it is not, then you should at least permit postman read and lookup access to the directory:

$ pwd
/afs/pitt.edu/usr15/droopy/dlists
$ fs la .
Access list for . is
Normal rights:
  system:anyuser rl
  droopy rlidwka

To check the syntax of an AMDS distribution list, use the "dlchk" command:

$ /usr/local/bin/dlchk -d file.dl

If there are any syntax problems in the file itself, dlchk will report them.

Publishing an AMDS distribution list

Publishing of AMDS White Pages Aliases is no longer a supported service that we are able to offer. Existing Published White Pages will be deprecated and removed from service. The alternative that CSSD currently offers is to use a Majordomo Managed Mailing List on the CSSD List Server Service.

Send your comments and questions about this document to postmaster@pitt.edu. Please make sure that your web browser is configured with your correct return address.

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