Re: I would like to have avaliable a couple Hypermail variables.

On Wed, 7 Oct 1998, Kent Landfield wrote:

: # I am considering using Hypermail for a large number of automatically
: # generated lists. To ease installation woes, it would be helpful to have
: # some more generic capabilities for many of hypermails options.
: #
: # I would like something like:
: #
: # HM_LISTNAME listname
: #
: # hm_listname = [ listname | NONE ]
: #
: # -L <listname>
: # This options specifies the name of the list being archived. This is a
: # convienent variable to have defined as it can be used as a cookie or
: # environemntal variable in documentation references.
: #
: # -H <hostname>
: # Set this to the hostname you want added to a mail
: # address appearing in the RFC822 field which lack a
: # hostname. It is usefull on the command line when servicing
: # virtual hosts.
:
: These are easy enough and needed for other reasons as well. The first (-L)
: will need to be added completely while the (-H) is already there as DOMAINADDR,
: hm_domainaddr. This was done since usually it is not a hostname that you want
: there but instead is a domain name. It can be used either way.

Good. I saw the DOMAINADDR references, but %D was already taken so I changed "domainname" to "hostname" and used %H instead. As you say, they can be interchanged.

: # %L - name of current list
: # %H - name of current host. Convienient for archiving with virtual hosting.
:
: These would be very useful in the list's header and footer .hyp files.
:
: I can see how this would be useful for virtual hosts. I could use it here
: as well ;) I do have some questions about the .hmrc file usage though.
:
: # For example for a default .hmrc file:
: #
: # hm_label = Hypermail discussion list for %L_at_%H
: # hm_archives = http://%H
: # hm_about = http://%H/%L
: # hm_dir = /var/hypermail/%H/%L/%y/%M
: # hm_ihtmlheaderfile = /var/hypermail/%H/%L/owner/idxheader.hyp
: # hm_ihtmlfooterfile = /var/hypermail/%H/%L/owner/idxfooter.hyp
: # hm_mhtmlheaderfile = /var/hypermail/%H/%L/owner/msgheader.hyp
: # hm_mhtmlfooterfile = /var/hypermail/%H/%L/owner/msgfooter.hyp
: # hm_hmail = %L_at_%H
:
: What is done if there are no values for %H and %L when first encountered ?
: It is possible to '#define LISTNAME "NONE"' in options.h, not set the
: HM_LISTNAME environment variable and then find no hm_listname or hm_hostname
: in the .hmrc file for the list. Then the above config file input would be
:
: hm_label = Hypermail discussion list for _at_
: hm_archives = http://
: hm_about = http:///
: hm_dir = /var/hypermail///%y/%M
: hm_ihtmlheaderfile = /var/hypermail///owner/idxheader.hyp
: hm_ihtmlfooterfile = /var/hypermail///owner/idxfooter.hyp
: hm_mhtmlheaderfile = /var/hypermail///owner/msgheader.hyp
: hm_mhtmlfooterfile = /var/hypermail///owner/msgfooter.hyp
: hm_hmail = _at_
:
: Should it bail if hypermail is called without a value in a substitution
: cookie ? Today it doesn't.

I see your point. The first take on this might just be to document that if you use %L and/or %D you need to make sure they are set. However, %D could default to the 'hostname'. Also, %L could default to webmaster, or maybe postmaster or even majordomo. It might be best to have LISTNAME be required to be set to something, since if it is not ever used it will not matter, and if it is someone should fix it.

: # A more difficult endevor which could also be helpful would be to leverage
: # off of the case where %L is used in the hm_dir variable along with other
: # date formats (%y, %M, etc) being used. In this case, it would be nice to
: # have Hypermail generate the "homepage(s)" for the directory traversals on
: # the fly. The page would need to be created initially (-d option) and then
: # updated anytime a new directory was automaticaly created.
: #
: # If this were done, then two addition .hyp files would be good:
: # hm_lhtmlheaderfile = /var/hypermail/%H/%L/owner/lstheader.hyp
: # hm_lhtmlfooterfile = /var/hypermail/%H/%L/owner/lstfooter.hyp
: #
: # Probably put a link to my search engine in "hm_lhtmlfooterfile"....
:
: So... In essence be able to create a top level index for all the
: year/month directories ?

Correct.

: For example, in the hypermail list archives
: here I have two types of directories at the Top level,
:
: 1. hypermail generated archives separated by month/year,
:
: 2. a mailbox directory that keeps a copy of the inbond messages
: in unix mailboxes separated by month
:
: Here is what I mean.
:
: hypermail/mail-archive:
: drwxr-xr-x 9 lists daemon 512 Oct 6 11:48 1998
: lrwxrwxrwx 1 kent kent 13 Apr 23 23:45 index.html
: drwxr-xr-x 2 lists daemon 512 Oct 2 20:27 mailbox
:
: hypermail/mail-archive/1998:
: drwxr-xr-x 2 lists daemon 1536 Oct 6 11:31 Apr
: drwxr-xr-x 2 lists daemon 1024 Oct 6 11:33 Aug
: drwxr-xr-x 2 lists daemon 512 Oct 6 11:33 Jul
: drwxr-xr-x 2 lists daemon 1536 Oct 6 11:33 Jun
: drwxr-xr-x 2 lists daemon 1024 Oct 6 11:32 May
: drwxrwxr-x 2 lists daemon 512 Oct 7 10:12 Oct
: drwxr-xr-x 2 lists daemon 1536 Oct 6 11:34 Sep
:
: hypermail/mail-archive/1998/Apr:
: -rw-r--r-- 1 lists daemon 4678 Oct 6 11:31 0000.html
: ...
: -rw-r--r-- 1 lists daemon 8813 Oct 6 11:31 author.html
: -rw-r--r-- 1 lists daemon 7469 Oct 6 11:31 date.html
: -rw-r--r-- 1 lists daemon 7753 Oct 6 11:31 index.html
:
: /ftp/hypermail/mail-archive/1998/May:
: /ftp/hypermail/mail-archive/1998/Jun:
: /ftp/hypermail/mail-archive/1998/Jul:
: /ftp/hypermail/mail-archive/1998/Aug:
: /ftp/hypermail/mail-archive/1998/Sep:
: /ftp/hypermail/mail-archive/1998/Oct:
:
: /ftp/hypermail/mail-archive/mailbox:
: -rw-r--r-- 1 lists daemon 159819 May 25 23:09 hypermail.9804
: ...
: -rw-r--r-- 1 lists daemon 33048 Oct 7 10:12 hypermail.9810
:
: So in this case I would need to create a Top level index in the
: hypermail/mail-archive directory that links in the entire archive.
: I would then need to have a year index file in hypermail/mail-archive/1998
: that linked in the separate months. The individual months are already
: handled. ;)

: Then when I incorporate the ability for hypermail to
: save a copy of the inbound message in mailbox format prior to generating
: a html page for it, I'll need to have an index generated for that.

Probably just adding a "From " line to the top of each message if it does not already exist, and an extra \n at the end. Of course you would need to lock this file as well.

: Is this the type of thing that we are talking about ?

Precisely. I was looking at your archive while visualizing this....

: Don't get me wrong... I'm trying to understand what we looking at
: so that I can see how to make it generic enough to implement and administer.

You understood my thoughts perfectly. Hypermail has much of the information and many of the routines to do this. It would be a really nice additition.

: The indexing has not been discussed as to how to do it right...
: As of this morning, the TODO list has the following items on it about
: indexing.:
:
: -----------
: - Make it optional as to what, if any, indexes are generated.

I would like a best performance indexing option. I guess that would be by arrival like a mail delivery agent would use. I would tend to make that the default, and let the list-owners make their changes from there.

: - Generate an index listing of all stored attachments. Also have links to
: the mail that contained them.

This seemed like an interesting feature.

Randall Received on Wed 07 Oct 1998 11:25:34 PM GMT