Creating mailing lists in Mailman

In this article, we explain how to create a new mailing list in Debian. We also present important configuration parameters. Information on installing Mailman can be found in the article Setup Mailman in Debian.

Create mailing list

A new mailing list can be created with the newlist command. Next, enter your email address. Mailman will use this address to send you email notifications in the future (for example, when new subscribers join the mailing list). Then, configure /etc/aliases as described:

lists:~# newlist test-mailingliste
Enter the email of the person running the list: email@example.org
Initial test-mailingliste password: 
To finish creating your mailing list, you must edit your /etc/aliases (or
equivalent) file by adding the following lines, and possibly running the
`newaliases' program:

## test-mailingliste mailing list
test-mailingliste:              "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman post test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-admin:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman admin test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-bounces:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman bounces test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-confirm:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman confirm test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-join:         "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman join test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-leave:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman leave test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-owner:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman owner test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-request:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman request test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-subscribe:    "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman subscribe test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-unsubscribe:  "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman unsubscribe test-mailingliste"

Hit enter to notify test-mailingliste owner...

lists:~# vi /etc/aliases
lists:~# tail -n 12 /etc/aliases

## test-mailingliste mailing list
test-mailingliste:              "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman post test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-admin:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman admin test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-bounces:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman bounces test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-confirm:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman confirm test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-join:         "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman join test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-leave:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman leave test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-owner:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman owner test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-request:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman request test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-subscribe:    "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman subscribe test-mailingliste"
test-mailingliste-unsubscribe:  "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman unsubscribe test-mailingliste"
lists:~# postalias /etc/aliases
lists:~# 

Configuration parameter

Some important configuration parameters can be adjusted in the web interface:

• General options:
  • real_name: Name of mailing list.
  • description: A brief one-lined description.
  • reply_goes_to_list: Here, you can define where replies to postings should be sent (E-Mail Reply-To field). "This list" is often a good choice here. "Explicit address" is particularly useful for announcement mailing lists. In that case, you can use the reply_to_address option to specify, for example, a different mailing list as the Reply-To address, to which users can send their replies.
  • host_name: Hostname, at which the email address can be reached (just check this value).
• Privacy options:
  • private_roster: Specifies who can view the list of all mailing list subscribers. List members is the default setting, but List admin only is often the better choice.
• Privacy options: Sender filters:
  • default_member_moderation: Specifies whether posts from new members are moderated. This is useful, for example, for announcement mailing lists.

Author: Werner Fischer Werner Fischer, working in the Knowledge Transfer team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his studies of Computer and Media Security at FH Hagenberg in Austria. He is a regular speaker at many conferences like LinuxTag, OSMC, OSDC, LinuxCon, and author for various IT magazines. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and training for a good result at the annual Linz marathon relay.

Translator: Alina Ranzinger Alina has been working at Thomas-Krenn.AG since 2024. After her training as multilingual business assistant, she got her job as assistant of the Product Management and is responsible for the translation of texts and for the organisation of the department.