Mailman

Mailman by default uses an SQLite database in /var/lib/mailman/data/, but can be configured to use MariaDB or PostgreSQL.

The default location for the SQLite database is already reflected in the schema.cfg and therefore does not have to be set in Mailman's configuration.

/etc/mailman.cfg

[database]
url: sqlite:////var/lib/mailman/data/mailman.db

Install the python-pymysql package and configure a database on MariaDB.

/etc/mailman.cfg

[database]
class: mailman.database.mysql.MySQLDatabase
url: mysql+pymysql://''myuser'':''mypassword''@''mymysqlhost''/mailman?charset=utf8&use_unicode=1

Install the python-psycopg2 package and create a database using PostgreSQL.

Mailman exposes its REST API based on the settings in the section of the configuration. Make sure to replace the default values for and admin_pass (do not use the example values below).

/etc/mailman.cfg

[webservice]
admin_user: my_new_admin_user_name
admin_pass: my_new_admin_user_password

By default DMARC and DKIM are disabled. The configuration takes place in the section of the configuration file. Make sure to set necessary values and read the documentation about the defaults.

To connect a mail-transfer-agent (MTA), it is necessary to configure the section in the configuration file. Upstream documentation covers examples for postfix, exim and sendmail, but other MTAs are technically possible.

To connect to a local postfix instance the following configuration section can be used:

The postfix configuration has to be extended to ensure compatibility (see upstream notes).

Additionally, postfix needs to be made aware of mailman's transport maps. Depending on the postfix configuration these may look similar to the following.

If postmap is not directly accessible by mailman for creating the default hash-based alias maps, it is possible to generate regular expression based alias maps instead. To overwrite the default Python-class based configuration, mailman allows the use of a configuration file. Create the following file:

Add the file to the section in mailman's configuration file.

Afterwards the regexp based exports can then be used in the postfix configuration.

/etc/postfix/main.cf

[..]
transport_maps = regexp:/var/lib/mailman/data/postfix_lmtp
local_recipient_maps = regexp:/var/lib/mailman/data/postfix_lmtp
relay_domains = regexp:/var/lib/mailman/data/postfix_domains
[..]

To connect to a local postfix instance with a virtual mail setup, first set an alias domain. Afterwards alter the respective configuration.

Mailman does not automatically archive mails on its own. The Hyperkitty web application is used for this purpose. Based on a plugin, mailman is able to send mails to a Hyperkitty instance for archival.

Install the package and configure /etc/mailman-hyperkitty.cfg.

Afterwards, make mailman aware of the plugin:

Mailman offers the possibility of importing mailman < 3.0 based list databases (). Run the following command as the mailman user (e.g. using sudo or su):

[mailman]$ mailman import21 LISTSPEC PICKLE_FILE

Here, represents a fully-qualified name of a list to import (e.g. ) and PICKLE_FILE the path to the list's file.

Mailman exposes a REST API, which can be interfaced using custom tooling, based on .