APPROVE(1)

NAME
approve - approve a Majordomo request

SYNOPSIS
approve [filename]

DESCRIPTION
approve automates the task of replying to an approval request from Majordomo. Input is the e-mail message containing Majordomo's request, read from filename, or read from standard input if no filename is specified.

approve currently understands two types of requests; those requesting subscription to a closed list, and those which bounced due to a lack of permission to post to a moderated, or private, mailing list. approve reads the body of the message from Majordomo to determine the appropriate action. Assuming a message containing a subscription request like the following:

    From: Majordomo@This.COM

    To: this-list-approval@This.COM

    Joe User <User@Fubar.COM> requests you approve the following:

        subscribe this-list Joe User <User@Fubar.COM>

    If you approve, send a line such as the following to Majordomo@This.COM:

        approve PASSWD subscribe this-list Joe User <User@Fubar.COM>

then running approve on the message by saving it in a file, e.g.,

    approve /tmp/request

or

    approve < /tmp/request

will result in the following reply to Majordomo:

    To: Majordomo@This.COM

    approve PASSWD subscribe this-list User@Fubar.COM (Joe User)

If approve is on the user's path, then it's possible to execute it via a shell escape, piping the current message to approve from a mail program, e.g.,

    !approve

would approve the current message in /usr/ucb/Mail.

If, in the latter case, the "Subject:" line of the request from Majordomo is "BOUNCE <list>: <reason>", the message is treated as a posting rejected by resend for some reason, and is reformatted with appropriate "Approved:" headers to cause it to succeed, and then it is resubmitted to Majordomo for posting. This provides an easy mechanism for the moderator of a mailing list to approve postings to the list.

CONFIGURATION
approve assumes that the approve password for each list is the same as the approval password used by resend, and that this password is stored in a file called .majordomo in the user's home directory. The file has the following format:
    this-list | passwd1 | Majordomo@This.COM
    other-list | passwd2 | Majordomo@Other.GOV
The first column specifies the name of the mailing list, the second column specifies the list-owner's password for the given list, and the third column specifies the e-mail address of the associated Majordomo server. It is assumed that the value in the third column is an Internet-style "something@somewhere" address, and that postings for "List" should be sent to "List@somewhere". Since this file only needs to be read by the user, it should be mode 600 to protect the passwords.

FILES
~/.majordomo

/usr/local/lib/mail/majordomo/

SEE ALSO
majordomo(8),perl(1),resend(1).

BUGS
There is no direct support for MH(1), so MH users will have to run approve directly on the message file in their inbox.

The .majordomo file requires an at-sign, "@", in the address of the Majordomo server, even if it colocated on the same system as the list-owner.

AUTHORS
Majordomo and most of the ancillary perl code was written by Brent Chapman, <brent@GreatCircle.COM>. This man page was written by Jim Duncan, <jim@math.psu.edu>.