Mailing List Manager

JSylvia007 · 01-13-2004, 04:32 PM

A friend of mine is a site developer, mainly using php, and he has recently run into a problem. He is used to using M$ servers, and he posed this linux quesiton to me:

Quote:

On <name> website she's got a mailing list that is now over 300 people. I used to have PHP loop through and send individual emails but now it takes too long because the mail() command isnt instant, has to open sockets etc etc each time. I can't just use Cc and Bcc because it reveals everyones email in the headers which would work .. but people wouldnt like it.

Now, I am under the impression that this must be relatively easy, but I havent ever had to make a mail distribution list. Basically I am curious how one would go about creating this list. Any help would be appreciated.

~Jake

zeropash · 01-14-2004, 07:20 AM

Majordomo!!

david_ross · 01-14-2004, 01:00 PM

Or Mailman.

Although it should be said that the whole idea of bcc is that recipients don't see other addresses so I'm not sure why he is saying that they would.

JSylvia007 · 01-14-2004, 01:38 PM

the problem is that they show up in the headers... although it wouldnt be in the "TO" line, the other users would show up in the message headers.

About those other 2 programs... he only has ssh accrss, it's not a personal server, would those require root access to install??

~Jake

david_ross · 01-14-2004, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JSylvia007
the problem is that they show up in the headers... although it wouldnt be in the "TO" line, the other users would show up in the message headers.

I think you will find this is not the case.

JSylvia007 · 01-14-2004, 02:00 PM

really... a BCC is a true BCC?? I was always under the impression that someone could just check the message headers and see that there were other users sent that email.... Does linux handle this differently than other window$ based mail servers??

~Jake

david_ross · 01-14-2004, 03:18 PM

AFAIK this is defined in one of the SMTP RFCs and so it should be standard across all SMTP servers. Try it yourself.

JSylvia007 · 01-14-2004, 03:26 PM

Thanks a bunch!! BCC will do the trick for now... Any thoughts on how BCC will work with several hundred addresses?? Shouldnt put too much of a strain on the server correct?? I mean as opposed to Majordomo or something like that?

~Jake

david_ross · 01-14-2004, 03:35 PM

It depends on your smtp server and what delivery method it is set up for. It shouldn't be any different what client you use to send the messages though.

JSylvia007 · 01-14-2004, 03:46 PM

unfortunately i dont know... this is all stemming from using PHP so send an email using the mail() function.