this is obsolete doc -- see http://doc.nethence.com/ instead

Setting up Majordomo on FreeBSD 8 with Sendmail 

Installation & Base Configuration 

Install the package, 

echo $PACKAGESITE

pkg_add -r majordomo

#tlb

Configure Majordomo and deploy the majordomo alias file, 

cd /etc/mail/

ln -s /usr/local/majordomo

cd majordomo/

cp majordomo.cf majordomo.cf.dist

vi majordomo.cf

#$whereami = "";

#takes the long-hostname by default so its best to define just the hostname,

$whereami = "example.local";

cp aliases.majordomo-sample /etc/mail/aliases.majordomo

chmod u+w aliases.majordomo

vi aliases.majordomo

change (the postmaster alias defined in the standard alias file works), 

majordomo-owner: postmaster 

owner-test-l:postmaster 

and apply, 

newaliases aliases.majordomo

Setup sendmail to take care of those new aliases and restart the daemon, 

cd /etc/mail/

vi $HOSTNAME.mc

define(`ALIAS_FILE',`/etc/mail/aliases,/etc/mail/aliases.majordomo')

make

make install restart

Get the same script as the one from the package according to $PACKAGESITE e.g., 

cd /usr/

wget http://ftp.nerim.net/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/8.4-RELEASE/ports/ports.tgz

ls -ld ports/

tar xzf ports.tgz

cd ~/

chmod u+x /usr/ports/mail/majordomo/scripts/adaptwrapper

/usr/ports/mail/majordomo/scripts/adaptwrapper

(I choose Sendmail here)

Note. Permissions of /usr/local/majordomo/wrapper aren't changed by the adaptwrapper script (majordom suid root already), but it does change the group ownerships for the majordom user. 

Final checks 

Check the perms (suid root/majordom) 

ls -l /usr/local/majordomo/wrapper

Check the group ownerships, 

grep majordom /etc/passwd

majordom:*:54:54:Majordomo Pseudo User:/usr/local/majordomo:/nonexistent

grep majordom /etc/group

majordom:*:54:majordom,daemon,mailnull

Ready to go 

Send an email to your mailing-list manager to query for available mailing-lists, 

'lists' in the body

Creating a new mailing-list with archiving 

Create a new mailing-list, 

cd /etc/mail/majordomo/lists/

  listname=events 

touch $listname

mkdir $listname.archive/

chown majordom:majordom $listname $listname.archive/

cd /etc/mail/

cat >> aliases.majordomo <<EOF9

owner-$listname:postmaster 

owner-$listname-outgoing:owner-$listname

$listname-approval:owner-$listname

$listname: "|/usr/local/majordomo/wrapper resend -l $listname $listname-outgoing"

$listname-outgoing::include:/usr/local/majordomo/lists/$listname,

       "|/usr/local/majordomo/wrapper archive -a -m -f /usr/local/majordomo/lists/$listname.archive/$listname.archive"

$listname-request: "|/usr/local/majordomo/wrapper majordomo -l $listname"

EOF9

note. -h has been removed. 

apply, 

newaliases aliases.majordomo

Setup a prefix to the subject of the list, 

cd /etc/mail/majordomo/

cp $listname.config $listname.config.dist

vi $listname.config

subject_prefix      = [$LIST]

Troubleshooting 

If you get this error as delivery return, 

/usr/local/majordomo/wrapper: Permission denied

554 5.3.0 unknown mailer error 126

it it because you forgot to run the adaptwrapper script, see above. 

References 

package's DESCR 

Majordomo and MajorCool HOWTO: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Majordomo-MajorCool-HOWTO/ 

3. Majordomo: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Majordomo-MajorCool-HOWTO/x253.html 

4. MajorCool: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Majordomo-MajorCool-HOWTO/x424.html