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<A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></A>

<UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html622"
  HREF="node2.html#SECTION00210000000000000000">1.1 License</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html623"
  HREF="node2.html#SECTION00220000000000000000">1.2 Features</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html624"
  HREF="node2.html#SECTION00230000000000000000">1.3 Project directions</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html625"
  HREF="node2.html#SECTION00240000000000000000">1.4 History</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html626"
  HREF="node2.html#SECTION00250000000000000000">1.5 Authors and credits</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html627"
  HREF="node2.html#SECTION00260000000000000000">1.6 Mailing lists and support</A>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION00200000000000000000">
1. Presentation</A>
</H1>

<P>
<I>Sympa</I> is an electronic mailing list manager.  It is used to automate
list management functions such as subscription, moderation,
archive and shared document management. 
It also includes management functions which
would normally require a substantial amount of work (time-consuming
and costly for the list owner). These
functions include automatic management of subscription renewals,
list maintenance, and many others.

<P>
<I>Sympa</I> manages many different kinds of lists. It includes
a web interface for all list functions including management. It allows
a precise definition of each list feature, such as sender authorization,
the moderating process, etc. <I>Sympa</I> defines, for each feature of each list,
exactly who is authorized to perform the relevant operations, along with the
authentication method to be used. Currently, authentication can be based
on either an SMTP From header, a password, or an S/MIME signature.
<BR><I>Sympa</I> is also able to extract electronic
addresses from an <A NAME="4162"></A>LDAP directory or <A NAME="4163"></A>SQL server, and include them
dynamically in a list.

<P>
<I>Sympa</I> manages the dispatching of messages, and makes it possible to
reduce the load on the computer system where it is installed. In
configurations with sufficient memory, <I>Sympa</I> is especially well
adapted to handling large lists: for a list of 20,000 subscribers, it requires
less than 6 minutes to send a message to 95 percent of the subscribers,
assuming that the network is available (tested on a 300&nbsp;MHz, 256&nbsp;MB
i386 server with Linux).

<P>
This guide covers the installation, configuration and management of
the current release (4.1.2) of
<A NAME="tex2html2"
  HREF="http://listes.cru.fr/sympa/">sympa</A>.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00210000000000000000">
1.1 License</A>
</H1>

<P>
<I>Sympa</I> is free software; you may distribute it under the terms
of the
<A NAME="tex2html3"
  HREF="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License Version 2</A>
<P>
You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form of
this package without restriction, provided that you duplicate all
of the original copyright notices and associated disclaimers.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00220000000000000000">
1.2 Features</A>
</H1>

<P>
<I>Sympa</I> provides all the basic features that any mailing list management robot
should include. While most <I>Sympa</I> features have their equivalents in other
mailing list applications, <I>Sympa</I> is unique in including features
in a single software package, including:

<P>

<UL>
<LI><B>High speed distribution processing</B> and <B>load control</B>. <I>Sympa</I> 
        can be tuned to allow the system administrator to control
        the amount of computer resources used.  Its optimized algorithm
        allows:

<P>

<UL>
<LI>the use of your preferred SMTP engine, e.g.
                <A NAME="4171"></A><TT>sendmail</TT>, <A NAME="4174"></A><TT>qmail</TT> or <A NAME="4177"></A><TT>postfix</TT>

<P>
</LI>
<LI>tuning of the maximum number of SMTP child processes

<P>
</LI>
<LI>grouping of messages according to recipients' domains,
	    	and tuning of the grouping factor

<P>
</LI>
<LI>detailed logging

<P>
</LI>
</UL>

<P>
</LI>
<LI><B>Multilingual</B> messages. The current version of
        <I>Sympa</I> allows the administrator to choose the language
        catalog at run time. At the present time the <I>Sympa</I> robot is available in
        Chinese, Czech, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, 
	Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian. The web interface is available in English, Spanish,
	French, Chinese, Czech, Hungarian, Italian.

<P>
</LI>
<LI><B>MIME support</B>. <I>Sympa</I> naturally respects
        <A NAME="4183"></A>MIME in the distribution process, and in addition
        allows list owners to configure their lists with
        welcome, goodbye and other predefined messages using complex
        <A NAME="4184"></A>MIME structures. For example, a welcome message can be
        <B>i</B>n multipart/alternative format, using <B>text/html</B>,
        <B>audio/x-wav</B>&nbsp;:-), or whatever (Note that <I>Sympa</I> 
        commands in multipart messages are successfully processed, provided that
	one part is <B>text/plain </B>).

<P>
</LI>
<LI>The <B>sending process is controlled</B> on a per-list basis.
        The list definition allows a number of different actions for
        each incoming message. A <A NAME="4186"></A><TT>private</TT> list is a list where
        only subscribers can send messages. A list configured using
        <A NAME="4189"></A><TT>privateoreditorkey</TT> mode accepts incoming messages
        from subscribers, but will forward any other (i.e. non-subscriber) message
	to the editor with a one-time secret numeric key that will be used by the
        editor to <I>reject</I> or <I>distribute</I> it.
        For details about the different sending modes, refer to the
        <A NAME="4192"></A><TT>send</TT> parameter (<A HREF="node16.html#par-send">15.3.8</A>, page&nbsp;<A HREF="node16.html#par-send"><IMG  ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ALT="[*]" SRC="crossref.png"></A>). The sending process configuration (as well as most other list
	operations) is defined using  an <B>authorization scenario</B>. Any listmaster
        can define new authorization scenarios in order to complement the 20
	predefined configurations included in the distribution. 
<BR>
Example : forward multipart messages to the list editor, while
	distributing others without requiring any further authorization.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Privileged operations can be performed by list editors or
        list owners (or any other user category), as defined in the list
        <A NAME="4195"></A><TT>config</TT> file or by
        the robot <A NAME="4198"></A>administrator, the listmaster, defined
        in the <A NAME="4199"></A><TT>/etc/sympa.conf</TT>  global configuration file (listmaster
        can also be defined for a particular virtual robot).
        Privileged operations include the usual <A NAME="4202"></A><TT>ADD</TT>, <A NAME="4205"></A><TT>DELETE</TT> or <A NAME="4208"></A><TT>REVIEW</TT> commands, which can be
        authenticated via a one-time password or an S/MIME signature.
	 Any list owner using the <A NAME="4211"></A><TT>EXPIRE</TT>
        command can require the renewal of subscriptions. This is made
        possible by the presence of a subscription date stored in the
        <I>Sympa</I> database.

<P>
<A NAME="wwsympa"></A> 
</LI>
<LI>textbf Web interface : <A NAME="4215"></A><I>WWSympa</I>  is a global Web interface to all <I>Sympa</I> functions
    	(including administration). It provides :

<P>

<UL>
<LI>classification of lists, along with a search index

<P>
</LI>
<LI>access control to all functions, including the list of lists
                  (which makes WWSympa particularly well suited to be the main
		  groupware tool within an intranet)

<P>
</LI>
<LI>management of shared documents (download, upload, specific
		  access control for each document)

<P>
</LI>
<LI>an HTML document presenting each user with the list of
		  her current subscriptions, including access to archives, and
		  subscription options

<P>
</LI>
<LI>management tools for list managers (bounce processing, changing of
                  list parameters, moderating incoming messages)

<P>
</LI>
<LI>tools for the robot administrator (list creation, global robot
                  configuration) <A NAME="168"></A>

<P>
</LI>
</UL>
	(See <A HREF="node8.html#WWSympa">7.1</A>, page&nbsp; <A HREF="node8.html#WWSympa"><IMG  ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ALT="[*]" SRC="crossref.png"></A>)

<P>
</LI>
<LI><B>RDBMS</B> : the internal subscriber data structure can be stored in a
        database or, for compatibility with versions 1.x, in text
        files. The introduction of databases came out of the
        <A NAME="4219"></A><I>WWSympa</I> project.  The database ensures a secure access to
        shared data. The PERL database API <A NAME="4222"></A><TT>DBI</TT>/<A NAME="4225"></A><TT>DBD</TT> enables
        interoperability with various <A NAME="4228"></A>RDBMS (<A NAME="4229"></A>MySQL, <A NAME="4230"></A>PostgreSQL,
        <A NAME="4231"></A>Oracle, <A NAME="4232"></A>Sybase).
	(See ref sec-rdbms, page&nbsp;<A HREF="node7.html#sec-rdbms"><IMG  ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ALT="[*]" SRC="crossref.png"></A>)

<P>
</LI>
<LI><B>Virtual robots</B> : a single <I>Sympa</I> installation
        can provide multiple virtual robots with both email and web interface
        customization (See <A HREF="node12.html#virtual-robot">11</A>, page&nbsp;<A HREF="node12.html#virtual-robot"><IMG  ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ALT="[*]" SRC="crossref.png"></A>).

<P>
</LI>
<LI><B><A NAME="4234"></A>LDAP-based mailing lists</B> : e-mail addresses can be retrieved dynamically from a database
    	accepting <A NAME="4235"></A>SQL queries, or from an <A NAME="4236"></A>LDAP directory. In the interest
	of reasonable response times, <I>Sympa</I> retains the data source in an
	internal cache controlled by a TTL (Time To Live) parameter.
	(See ref include-ldap-query, page&nbsp;<A HREF="node16.html#include-ldap-query"><IMG  ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ALT="[*]" SRC="crossref.png"></A>)

<P>
</LI>
<LI><B><A NAME="4238"></A>LDAP authentication</B>:  via uid and emails stored 
      	in LDAP Directories.  Alternative email addresses, extracted from LDAP 
        directory, may be used to "unify" subscriptions.
	(See ref ldap-auth, page&nbsp;<A HREF="node10.html#ldap-auth"><IMG  ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ALT="[*]" SRC="crossref.png"></A>)

<P>
</LI>
<LI><B>Antivirus scanner</B> : <I>Sympa</I> extracts attachements from incoming
	messages and run a virus scanner on them. Curently working with McAfee/uvscan,
	Fsecure/fsav, Sophos, AVP, Trend Micro/VirusWall and Clam Antivirus.
	(See ref antivirus, page&nbsp;<A HREF="node19.html#antivirus"><IMG  ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ALT="[*]" SRC="crossref.png"></A>)

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Inclusion of the subscribers of one list among the subscribers of
    	another. This is real inclusion, not the dirty, multi-level cascading
	one might otherwise obtain by simply "subscribing list B to list A".

<P>
</LI>
</UL>

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00230000000000000000">
1.3 Project directions</A>
</H1>

<P>
<I>Sympa</I> is a very active project : check the release note 
<A NAME="tex2html4"
  HREF="http://listes.cru.fr/sympa/release.shtml">release note</A>.
So it is no longer possible to
maintain multiple document about Sympa project direction.
Please refer to <A NAME="tex2html5"
  HREF="http://www.sympa.org/sympa/direct/in-the-future.html">in-the-futur document</A>
for information about project direction.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00240000000000000000">
1.4 History</A>
</H1>

<P>
<I>Sympa</I> development started from scratch in 1995. The goal was to
ensure continuity with the <A NAME="4242"></A>TULP list manager, produced
partly by the initial author of <I>Sympa</I>: Christophe Wolfhugel.

<P>
New features were required, which the TULP code was just not up to
handling. The initial version of <I>Sympa</I> brought authentication,
the flexible management of commands, high performances in internal
data access, and object oriented code for easy code maintenance.

<P>
It took nearly two years to produce the first market releases.

<P>
Other date :

<P>

<UL>
<LI>Mar 1999 Internal use of a database (Mysql), definition of list subscriber with external datasource (RDBMS or <A NAME="4245"></A>LDAP).
</LI>
<LI>Oct 1999 Stable version of WWsympa, introduction of authorization scenarios.
</LI>
<LI>Feb 2000 Web bounces management
</LI>
<LI>Apr 2000 Archives search engine and message removal
</LI>
<LI>May 2000 List creation feature from the web
</LI>
<LI>Jan 2001 Support for S/MIME (signing and encryption), list setup through the web interface, Shared document repository for each list. Full rewrite of HTML look and feel
</LI>
<LI>Jun 2001 Auto-install of aliases at list creation time, antivirus scanner plugging
</LI>
<LI>Jan 2002 Virtual robot, <A NAME="4246"></A>LDAP authentication
</LI>
</UL> 

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00250000000000000000">
1.5 Authors and credits</A>
</H1>

<P>
Christophe Wolfhugel is the author of the first beta version of
<I>Sympa</I>. He developed it while working for the
<A NAME="tex2html6"
  HREF="http://www.pasteur.fr">Institut Pasteur</A>.

<P>
Later developments have mainly been driven by the
<A NAME="tex2html7"
  HREF="http://www.cru.fr">Comit&#233; R&#233;seaux des Universit&#233;s</A>
(Olivier Sala&#252;n and Serge Aumont), who look after a large mailing
list service.

<P>
Our thanks to all contributors, including:

<P>

<UL>
<LI>Pierre David, who in addition to his help and suggestions
       in developing the code, participated more than actively in
       producing this manual.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>David Lewis who corrected this documentation

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Philippe Rivi&#232;re for his persevering in tuning <I>Sympa</I> for Postfix.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Rapha&#235;l Hertzog (debian), Jerome Marant (debian) and St&#233;phane Poirey (redhat) for
      Linux packages.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Loic Dachary for guiding us through the <I>GNU Coding Standards</I>

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Vincent Mathieu, Lynda Amadouche, John Dalbec for their integration
	of <A NAME="4249"></A>LDAP features in <I>Sympa</I>.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Olivier Lacroix, for all his perseverance in bug fixing.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Hubert Ulliac for search in archive base on marcsearch.pm

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Florent Guilleux who wrote the Task Manager

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Nadia Euzen for developping the antivirus scanner pluggin.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Fabien Marquois, who introduced many new features such as
      the digest.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Valics Lehel, for his Romanian translations

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Vizi Szilard for his Hungarian translations

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Petr Prazak for his Czech translations

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Rodrigo Filgueira Prates for his Portuguese translations

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Lukasz Zalubski for his Polish translations

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Alex Nappa and Josep Roman for their Spanish translations

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Carsten Clasohm and Jens-Uwe Gaspar for their German translations

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Marco Ferrante for his Italian translations

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Tung Siu Fai, Wang Jian and Autrijus Tang for their Chinese translations

<P>
</LI>
<LI>and also: Manuel Valente, Dominique Rousseau,
    Laurent Ghys, Francois Petillon, Guy Brand, Jean Brange, Fabrice
    Gaillard, Herv&#233; Maza, Harald Wilhelmi, 

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Anonymous critics who never missed a chance to
       remind us that <I>smartlist</I> already did all that
       better.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>All contributors and beta-testers cited in the <A NAME="4251"></A><TT>RELEASE_NOTES</TT> file, who, by serving as guinea pigs and
       being the first to use it, made it possible to quickly and
       efficiently debug the <I>Sympa</I> software.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Ollivier Robert, Usenet Canal Historique and the good manners
      guru in the PERL program.

<P>
</LI>
<LI>Bernard Barbier, without whom <I>Sympa</I> would not
        have a name.

<P>
</LI>
</UL>

<P>
We ask all those we have forgotten to thank to accept our apologies
and to let us know, so that we can correct this error in future
releases of this documentation.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00260000000000000000"></A>
    <A NAME="sympa_cru.fr"></A>
<BR>
1.6 Mailing lists and support
</H1>

<P>
If you wish to contact the authors of <I>Sympa</I>, please use the address
<TT>sympa-authorscru.fr</TT>.

<P>
There are also a few <A NAME="tex2html8"
  HREF="http://listes.cru.fr/wws/lists/informatique/sympa">mailing-lists about <I>Sympa</I> </A>
:

<P>

<UL>
<LI><TT>sympa-userscru.fr</TT> general info list

<P>
</LI>
<LI><TT>sympa-frcru.fr</TT>, for French-speaking users

<P>
</LI>
<LI><TT>sympa-announcecru.fr</TT>, <I>Sympa</I> announcements

<P>
</LI>
<LI><TT>sympa-devcru.fr</TT>, <I>Sympa</I> developers

<P>
</LI>
<LI><TT>sympa-translationcru.fr</TT>, <I>Sympa</I> translators

<P>
</LI>
</UL>

<P>
To join, send the following message to <TT>sympacru.fr</TT>:

<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<TT>subscribe</TT> <I>Listname</I> <I>Firstname</I> <I>Name</I>

</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>
(replace <I>Listname</I>, <I>Firstname</I> and <I>Name</I> by the list name, your first name and your family name).

<P>
You may also consult the <I>Sympa</I> <A NAME="tex2html9"
  HREF="http://listes.cru.fr/sympa">home page</A>,
you will find the latest version, <A NAME="tex2html10"
  HREF="http://listes.cru.fr/sympa/fom-serve/cache/1.html">FAQ</A>
and so on.

<P>

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