The /etc/sympa.conf configuration file contains numerous parameters which are read on start-up of Sympa. If you change this file, do not forget that you will need to restart Sympa afterwards.
The /etc/sympa.conf file contains directives in the following format:
keyword value
Comments start with the # character at the beginning of a line. Empty lines are also considered as comments and are ignored. There should only be one directive per line, but their order in the file is of no importance.
This keyword is mandatory. It is the domain name used in the From: header in replies to administrative requests. So the smtp engine (qmail, sendmail, postfix or whatever) must recognize this domain as a local adress. This parameter name replace the previous parameter name host which can always be used as a synonim.
Example: domain cru.fr
(Default value: sympa)
Username (the part of the address preceding the @ sign) used in the From: header in replies to administrative requests.
Example: email listserv
The list of e-mail addresses of listmasters (users authorized to perform global server commands). Listmaster can be defined for each virtual robot.
Example: listmaster postmaster@cru.fr,root@cru.fr
(Default value: http://<host>/wws)
This is the root URL of WWSympa.
Example: WWSympa_url https://my.server/wws
They are the color definition for web interface. Default are set in the main Makefile. Thoses parameters can be overwritten in each virtual robot definition.
This string is used to generate MD5 authentication keys. It allows generated authentication keys to differ from one site to another. It is also used for reversible encryption of user passwords stored in the database. The presence of this string is one reason why access to sympa.conf needs to be restricted to the Sympa user.
Note that changing this parameter will break all http cookies stored in users' browsers, as well as all user passwords and lists X509 private keys.
Example: cookie gh869jku5
(Default value: listmaster)
Defines who can create lists (or request list creations). Sympa will use the corresponding scenario.
Example: create_list intranet
The directory whose subdirectories correspond to the different lists.
Example: home /home/sympa/expl
This is the local directory for configuration files (such as edit_list.conf. It contains 5 subdirectories: scenari for local scenarii; templates for the site's local templates and default list templates; wws_templates for the site's local html templates; global_task_models for local global task models; and list_task_models for local list task models
Example: home /home/sympa/etc
(Default value: LOCAL1)
Name of the sub-system (facility) for logging messages.
Example: syslog LOCAL2
(Default value: inet)
Sympa communicates with syslogd using either UDP or UNIX sockets. Set log_socket_type to inet to use UDP, or unix for UNIX sockets.
(Default value: ~sympa/sympa.pid)
The file where the sympa.pl daemon stores its process number. Warning: the sympa user must be able to write to this file, and to create it if it doesn't exist.
Example: pidfile /var/run/sympa.pid
(Default value: 027)
Default mask for file creation (see umask(2)).
Example: umask 007
(Default value: 20)
Maximum number of SMTP delivery child processes spawned by Sympa. This is the main load control parameter.
Example: maxsmtp 500
(Default value: off)
Set logging of each MTA call. Can be overwritten by -m sympa option.
Example: log_smtp on
(Default value: 5 Mb)
Maximum size allowed for messages distributed by Sympa. This may be customized per virtual robot or per list by setting the max_size robot or list parameter.
Example: max_size 2097152
(Default value: reject)
When a robot command is sent to a list, by default Sympa reject this message. This feature can be turned off setting this parameter to ignore.
(Default value: 25)
Maximum number of recipients per sendmail call. This grouping factor makes it possible for the (sendmail) MTA to optimize the number of SMTP sessions for message distribution.
(Default value: 10)
Maximum number of different internet domains within addresses per sendmail call.
(Default value: /usr/sbin/sendmail)
Absolute call path to SMTP message transfer agent (sendmail for example).
Example: sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail
(Default value: help,subscribe,unsubscribe,post,owner,archive)
RFC2369 compliant header fields (List-xxx) to be added to distributed messages. These header-fields should be implemented by MUA's, adding menus.
(Default value: Return-Receipt-To,Precedence,X-Sequence,Disposition-Notification-To)
This is the list of headers that Sympa should remove from outgoing messages. Use it, for example, to ensure some privacy for your users by discarding anonymous options. It is (for the moment) site-wide. It is applied before the Sympa, rfc2369_header_fields, and custom_header fields are added.
Example: remove_headers Resent-Date,Resent-From,Resent-To,Resent-Message-Id,Sender,Delivered-To,Return-Receipt-To,Precedence,X-Sequence,Disposition-Notification-To
(Default value: Sender,X-Sender,Received,Message-id,From,X-Envelope-To,Resent-From,Reply-To,Organization,Disposition-Notification-To,X-Envelope-From,X-X-Sender)
This parameter defines the list of SMTP header fields that should be
removed when a mailing list is setup in anonymous mode (see
13.4.3, page ).
The parent directory which contains all the other spools.
The absolute path of the directory which contains the queue, used both by the queue program and the sympa.pl daemon. This parameter is mandatory.
Example: queue /home/sympa/queue
(Default value: ~sympa/spool/moderation)
This parameter is optional and retained solely for backward compatibility.
This parameter is optional and retained solely for backward compatibility.
(Default value: ~sympa/spool/expire)
This parameter is optional and retained solely for backward compatibility.
(Default value: ~sympa/spool/auth)
This parameter is optional and retained solely for backward compatibility.
(Default value: ~sympa/spool/outgoing)
This parameter is optional and retained solely for backward compatibility.
(Default value: ~sympa/spool/bounce)
Spool to store bounces (non-delivery reports) received by the bouncequeue program via the mylist-owner or bounce+* addresses . This parameter is mandatory and must be an absolute path.
(Default value: ~sympa/spool/task)
Spool to store task files created by the task manager. This parameter is mandatory and must be an absolute path.
(Default value: ~sympa/spool/tmpdir)
Temporary directory used by OpenSSL and antiviruses.
(Default value: 5)
Waiting period (in seconds) between each scan of the main queue. Never set this value to 0!
(Default value: 1)
Retention period (in days) for ``bad'' messages in spool (as specified by queue). Sympa keeps messages rejected for various reasons (badly formatted, looping, etc.) in this directory, with a name prefixed by BAD. This configuration variable controls the number of days these messages are kept.
Example: clean_delay_queue 3
(Default value: 10)
Expiration delay (in days) in the moderation spool (as specified by queuemod). Beyond this deadline, messages that have not been processed are deleted. For moderated lists, the contents of this spool can be consulted using a key along with the MODINDEX command.
(Default value: 3)
Expiration delay (in days) in the authentication queue. Beyond this deadline, messages not enabled are deleted.
The location of multilingual (nls) catalog files. Must correspond to ~src/nls/Makefile.
(Default value: us)
This is the default language for Sympa. The message catalog (.cat) located in the corresponding msgcat directory will be used.
(Default value: 30)
Site default value for bounce. The list owner receives a warning whenever a message is distributed and the number of bounces exceeds this value.
(Default value: 50)
FOR FUTURE USE
Site default value for bounce. Messages will cease to be distributed if the number of bounces exceeds this value.
(Default value: owner)
If set to string unique, sympa will use a unique e-mail address in the return path, prefixed by bounce+, in order to remove the corresponding subscriber. Requires the bounced daemon, and plussed aliases (as in sendmail 8.7 and later).
(Default value: owner)
Like welcome_return_path, but relates to the remind message.
(Default value: 1)
Priority applied to Sympa commands while running the spool.
Available since release 2.3.1.
(Default value: 0)
Priority for processing of messages for mylist-request, i.e. for owners of the list.
Available since release 2.3.3
(Default value: 9)
Priority for processing messages for mylist-owner in the spool. This address will receive non-delivery reports (bounces) and should have a low priority.
Available since release 2.3.3
(Default value: 5)
Default priority for messages if not defined in the list configuration file.
Available since release 2.3.1.
The following parameters are needed when using an RDBMS, but otherwise are not required:
Database management system used (e.g. MySQL, Pg, Oracle)
This corresponds to the PERL DataBase Driver (DBD) name and is therefore case-sensitive.
(Default value: sympa)
Name of the database containing user information. See
detailed notes on database structure, ,
page
.
Database host name.
Database port.
User with read access to the database.
If these options are defined, they will be appended to the database connect string.
Example for MySQL:
db_options mysql_read_default_file=/home/joe/my.cnf
Sets a list of environment variables to set before database connexion. This is a ';'separated list of variable assignment.
Example for Oracle:
db_env ORACLE_TERM=vt100;ORACLE_HOME=/var/hote/oracle/7.3.4
If your subscriber_table database table has more fields
than required by Sympa (because other softwares work this set of
data), you can make Sympa load these fields. Therefore, you can
use them from within mail/web templates (as [subscriber-field]).
This parameter is a comma-separated list.
Example :
db_additional_subscriber_fields billing_delay,subscription_expiration
If your user_table database table has more fields
than required by Sympa (because other softwares work this set of
data), you can make Sympa load these fields. Therefore, you can
use them from within mail/web templates (as [user-field]).
This parameter is a comma-separated list.
Example :
db_additional_user_fields address,gender
The following define your loop prevention policy for commands.
(see 9.9, page )
(Default value: 200)
The maximum number of command reports sent to an e-mail address. When it is reached, messages are stored with the BAD prefix, and reports are no longer sent.
(Default value: 3600)
This parameter defines the delay in seconds before decrementing the counter of reports sent to an e-mail address.
(Default value: 0.5)
The decrementation factor (from 0 to 1), used to determine the new report counter after expiration of the delay.
Sympa can optionally verify and use S/MIME signatures for security purposes.
In this case, the three first following parameters must be assigned by the listmaster
(see 8.4.2, page ). The two others are optionnals.
The path for the openSSL binary file.
The password for list private key encryption. If not defined, Sympa assumes that list private keys are not encrypted.
States the model version used to create the task which regurlaly checks the certificate
expiration dates and warns users whose certificate have expired or are going to.
To know more about tasks, see 9.10, page .
Specifies the model version used to create the task which regurlaly updates the certificate revocation lists.
Sympa can optionally check incoming messages before delivering them, using an external antivirus solution. You must then set two parameters.
The path to your favorite antivirus binary file (including the binary file).
Example :
antivirus_path /usr/local/bin/uvscan
The arguments used by the antivirus software to look for viruses. You must set them so as to get the virus name. You should use, if available, the 'unzip' option and check all extensions.
Example with uvscan :
antivirus_args --summary --secure
Example with fsav :
antivirus_args --dumb --archive