withlist(8)						      System Manager's Manual						       withlist(8)

NAME

       withlist - General framework for interacting with a mailing list object.

SYNOPSIS

       withlist [options] listname [args ...]

       There are two ways to use this script: interactively or programmatically.  Using it interactively allows you to play with, examine and mod-
       ify a MailList object from Python's interactive interpreter.  When running interactively, a MailList object called `m' will be available in
       the global namespace.  It also loads the class MailList into the global namespace.

       Programmatically,  you  can write a function to operate on a MailList object, and this script will take care of the housekeeping (see below
       for examples).  In that case, the general usage syntax is:

OPTIONS

       -l, --lock
	      Lock the list when opening.  Normally the list is opened unlocked (e.g. for read-only operations).  You can  always  lock  the  file
	      after the fact by typing `m.Lock()'

	      Note  that  if  you  use this option, you should explicitly call m.Save() before exiting, since the interpreter's clean up procedure
	      will not automatically save changes to the MailList object (but it will unlock the list).

       -i, --interactive
	      Leaves you at an interactive prompt after all other processing is complete.  This is the default unless the -r option is given.

       -r [module.]callable, --run [module.]callable
	      This can be used to run a script with the opened MailList object.  This works by attempting to import module (which must already	be
	      accessible on your sys.path), and then calling callable from the module.	callable can be a class or function; it is called with the
	      MailList object as the first argument.  If additional args are given on the command line, they are passed as  subsequent	positional
	      args to the callable.

	      Note that module. is optional; if it is omitted then a module with the name callable will be imported.

	      The global variable `r' will be set to the results of this call.

       -a, --all
	      This  option  only  works with the -r option.  Use this if you want to execute the script on all mailing lists.  When you use -a you
	      should not include a listname argument on the command line.  The variable `r' will be a list of all the results.

       -q, --quiet
	      Suppress all status messages.

       -h, --help
	      Print a small help text and exit

EXAMPLES

       Here's an example of how to use the -r option.  Say you have a file in the Mailman installation directory called  `listaddr.py',  with  the
       following two functions:

	 def listaddr(mlist):
	     print mlist.GetListEmail()

	 def requestaddr(mlist):
	     print mlist.GetRequestEmail()

       Now, from the command line you can print the list's posting address by running the following from the command line:

	 % bin/withlist -r listaddr mylist
	 Loading list: mylist (unlocked)
	 Importing listaddr ...
	 Running listaddr.listaddr() ...
	 mylist@myhost.com

       And you can print the list's request address by running:

	 % bin/withlist -r listaddr.requestaddr mylist
	 Loading list: mylist (unlocked)
	 Importing listaddr ...
	 Running listaddr.requestaddr() ...
	 mylist-request@myhost.com

       As another example, say you wanted to change the password for a particular user on a particular list.  You could put the following function
       in a file called `changepw.py':

	 from Mailman.Errors import NotAMemberError

	 def changepw(mlist, addr, newpasswd):
	     try:
		 mlist.setMemberPassword(addr, newpasswd)
		 mlist.Save()
	     except NotAMemberError:
		 print 'No address matched:', addr

	and run this from the command line:
	% bin/withlist -l -r changepw mylist somebody@somewhere.org foobar

AUTHOR

       Author of Mailman is the Mailman Cabal, see http://www.list.org/ for information.  This manpage is written for Debian by Bernd S.  Brentrup
       <bsb@debian.org>.

SEE ALSO

       Mailman documentation on http://www.list.org/ and in /usr/share/doc/mailman.

								    2004-03-24							       withlist(8)