Annotation of www/mail.html, Revision 1.126
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1.25 deraadt 16: <p>
1.66 nick 17: <h1><font color="#e00000">Mailing Lists</font></h1>
1.57 horacio 18: <hr>
1.7 downsj 19:
1.66 nick 20: Mailing lists are an important means of communication among users and
1.121 tedu 21: developers of OpenBSD. With the exception of <b>announce</b>,
22: the lists are not moderated. We deliberately
1.66 nick 23: restrict the number of different mailing lists.
24: This helps reduce the amount of cross-posting and makes sure that the
25: information gets distributed to a wide audience.
26:
1.28 louis 27: <p>
1.66 nick 28: <a name="Netiquette"></a>
29: <h2><font color="#e00000">Netiquette</font></h2>
1.28 louis 30: <p>
31: Be considerate of other subscribers on the mailing lists.
32: <dl>
1.66 nick 33: <dt><b>Plain text, 72 characters per line</b>
34: <dd>Many subscribers and developers read their mail on text-based mailers
35: (mail(1), emacs, Mutt)
1.45 millert 36: and they find HTML-formatted messages, or lines that stretch beyond 72
37: characters often unreadable.
38: Most OpenBSD mailing lists strip messages of MIME content before
39: sending them out to the rest of the list.
40: If you don't use plain text your messages will be reformatted or,
41: if they cannot be reformatted, summarily rejected.
1.66 nick 42: The only mailing list that allows attachments is the <b>ports</b> list,
1.45 millert 43: they will be removed from messages on the other mailing lists.
1.66 nick 44:
45: <dt><b>Do your homework before you post</b>
1.28 louis 46: <dd>If you have an installation question, make sure that you have read the relevant
47: documents such as the INSTALL.* text files in the FTP installation directories, the
1.57 horacio 48: <a href="faq/index.html">FAQ</a> and the relevant man pages (start with
1.66 nick 49: <a href= "http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=afterboot&sektion=8">afterboot(8)</a>),
50: and check the mailing list <a href="#Archives">archives</a>.
51: We want to help, but we wouldn't want to deprive you of a valuable
52: learning experience, and no one wants to see the same question on the
53: lists for the fifth time in a month.
54:
55: <dt><b>Include a useful Subject line</b>
1.45 millert 56: <dd>Messages with an empty Subject will get bounced to the list manager and
1.57 horacio 57: so they will take longer to show up. Including a relevant Subject in the message
1.45 millert 58: will ensure that more people actually read what you've written.
59: Also, avoid Subject lines with excessive capitalization.
1.96 jmc 60: "Help!" or "I can't get it to work!" are not useful subject lines.
1.66 nick 61: Do not change the subject line while on the same topic. YOU may know
62: what it is regarding, the rest of us who get several hundred messages a
63: day will have no idea.
64:
65: <dt><b>Trim your signature</b>
66: <dd>Keep the signature lines at the bottom of your mail to a reasonable
67: length. PGP signatures, and those automatic address cards are merely
68: annoying and are stripped out. Legal disclaimers and advisories are
69: very annoying, and inappropriate to public mailing lists.
70:
71: <dt><b>Stay on topic</b>
1.28 louis 72: <dd>Please keep the subject of the post relevant to users of OpenBSD.
1.66 nick 73:
74: <dt><b>Include important information</b>
75: <dd>Don't waste everyone's time with a hopelessly incomplete question.
76: No one other than you has the information needed to resolve your
77: problem, it is better to provide more information than needed than one
78: detail too little. Any question should include at least the
79: <a href="faq/faq5.html#Flavors">version</a> of OpenBSD (i.e.,
80: "3.2-stable", "3.3-current as of July 20, 2003"). Any hardware related
1.69 nick 81: questions should mention the platform (i.e., sparc,
1.66 nick 82: alpha, etc.), and provide a full
1.70 nick 83: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=dmesg&sektion=8">dmesg(8)</a>.
1.66 nick 84: Hardware model numbers, unfortunately, don't indicate much about the
85: actual content of a particular machine or accessory, and are useless to
86: anyone who doesn't have that exact machine sitting where they can easily
87: recognize it. The dmesg(8) tells us exactly what is IN your machine,
88: not what stickers are on the outside.
89:
90: <dt><b>Respect differences in opinion and philosophy</b>
91: <dd>Intelligent people may look at the same set of facts and come to
92: very different conclusions. Repeating the same points that didn't
93: convince someone previously rarely changes their mind and irritates all
94: the other readers.
95:
96: <dt><b>Do not cross-post or repeat post</b>
97: <dd>Posting the same message to multiple lists and/or multiple times
98: does not increase the likelihood of getting a useful response, but is
99: likely to irritate the people you want to help you. If you didn't get a
100: satisfactory response the first time you posted to an appropriate list,
101: it is usually because you provided insufficient or unclear information.
102: Don't simply repost the same message.
103:
1.28 louis 104: </dl>
1.1 deraadt 105:
1.33 millert 106: <p>
1.66 nick 107: <a name="spam"></a>
108: <h2><font color="#e00000">Spam</font></h2>
1.33 millert 109: <p>
1.66 nick 110: The OpenBSD mailing lists use
1.78 millert 111: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=spamd&sektion=8">spamd(8)</a> in greylisting mode as well as
1.66 nick 112: <a href="http://www.spamassassin.org">SpamAssassin</a> to keep down the
1.87 millert 113: spam volume but things do sneak through--deal with it.
1.66 nick 114: In addition, the list server also has regex-based rules to reject
1.87 millert 115: based on some common spam and virus telltales.
116: If you get spam through one of the OpenBSD mailing lists, you don't need to
117: send a copy to the list owner--chances are he's already seen it.
118: Also, please do <b>not</b> submit spam received through the
119: mailing lists to <a href="http://spamcop.net">spamcop</a>
120: as this will result in the list server being added to their RBL.
121: Complaining about and commenting upon spam on the list proper
122: is counter-productive as it generates more traffic than the spam itself.
123: <p>
1.77 millert 124: Note that if you are sending mail from a dynamic IP address you
125: will probably <b>not</b> be able to post to the mailing lists.
126: In this case you should use a <em>smart host</em> sendmail configuration
127: that utilizes your ISP's mail server. See the comments in
128: <tt>/usr/share/sendmail/cf/openbsd-proto.mc</tt> for how to do this.
1.66 nick 129:
130:
131: <a name="Lists"></a>
132: <h2><font color="#e00000">The Mailing Lists</font></h2>
1.33 millert 133:
1.66 nick 134: <h3>General Interest Lists</h3>
135: These lists are of interest to most users of OpenBSD.
1.1 deraadt 136: <dl>
1.66 nick 137:
138: <dt><b>misc</b>
139: <dd>User questions and answers, general questions. This is the most
140: active list. Please, <a href="faq/index.html">read the FAQ</a> and the
141: installation documents, and see <a href="report.html">How to report a
142: Problem</a> before posting.
143:
144: <dt><b>advocacy</b>
145: <dd>Promoting the use of OpenBSD. Non-technical discussions in
146: <i>misc</i> often get shunted here.
147:
148: <dt><b>announce</b>
149: <dd>Important announcements. This low volume list is excellent for
150: people who just want occasional news about the project.
151:
152: <dt><b>ports</b>
153: <dd>Discussions about using and contributing to the 'ports' source tree.
154:
155: <h3>Developer's Lists</h3>
156: These lists are for technical discussions of aspects of OpenBSD. They
157: are NOT for beginning or average users, they are not for problem
158: reporting (unless you are including a good fix), and they are not for
159: installation problems. If you have any question about if a message
160: should be posted to any of these lists, almost invariably, it should not
161: be. Use <b>misc</b>, above, instead. <b>Please</b> do not cross post
162: to multiple lists.
163:
164: <dl>
165: <dt><b>bugs</b>
1.57 horacio 166: <dd><a href="report.html">Bug reports</a> as sent in via
1.66 nick 167: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=sendbug&sektion=1">sendbug(1)</a>
1.119 nick 168: and follow-up discussions.
1.66 nick 169:
170: <dt><b>tech</b>
171: <dd>Discussion of technical topics for OpenBSD developers and advanced
172: users. This is <b>not</b> a "tech support" forum, do not use it as
173: such.
1.86 nick 174: OpenBSD developers will often make patches to implement new features
175: and other important changes available for public testing through this
176: list.
1.123 deraadt 177: </dl>
1.66 nick 178:
179: <h3>Platform Specific Lists</h3>
180: These lists are focused on user issues and development on individual
181: platforms.
182: <dl>
183: <dt><b>alpha</b>
184: <dd>OpenBSD/alpha port
185:
1.75 miod 186: <dt><b>arm</b>
1.105 deanna 187: <dd>OpenBSD/zaurus port and other ARM porting efforts
1.75 miod 188:
1.66 nick 189: <dt><b>hppa</b>
190: <dd>OpenBSD/hppa port
191:
1.98 miod 192: <dt><b>m88k</b>
193: <dd>OpenBSD/aviion, OpenBSD/luna88k and OpenBSD/mvme88k ports
194:
1.66 nick 195: <dt><b>ppc</b>
1.81 nick 196: <dd>OpenBSD/macppc and other PowerPC porting efforts
1.66 nick 197:
1.109 jsing 198: <dt><b>sgi</b>
199: <dd>OpenBSD/sgi port
200:
1.66 nick 201: <dt><b>sparc</b>
202: <dd>OpenBSD/sparc and OpenBSD/sparc64 ports
203:
204: <dt><b>vax</b>
205: <dd>OpenBSD/vax port
206: </dl>
207:
208: <h3>CVS Changes Mailing Lists</h3>
209: Every time a developer commits a change to the OpenBSD
1.69 nick 210: <a href="why-cvs.html">CVS tree</a>, a message is mailed out to all the subscribers
1.66 nick 211: of these lists, containing the commit comments.
212:
213: <dl>
214: <dt><b>source-changes</b>
215: <dd>Automated mail-out of CVS source tree changes in all the repositories
216: other than <i>ports</i>.
217:
218: <dt><b>ports-changes</b>
219: <dd>Automated mail-out of ports-specific CVS source tree changes.
1.1 deraadt 220: </dl>
221:
1.116 sthen 222: <a name="Mirrors"></a>
223: <h3>Mirror-related Mailing Lists</h3>
224: Announcements and discussion relating to mirrors of OpenBSD.
225:
226: <dl>
227: <dt><b>mirrors-announce</b>
228: <dd>This is a moderated list used solely for important announcements
229: to operators of OpenBSD mirrors.
230:
231: <dt><b>mirrors-discuss</b>
232: <dd>Discussion relating to OpenBSD mirrors.
233: </dl>
234:
1.66 nick 235: <a name="Majordomo"></a>
236: <h2><font color="#e00000">Managing Mailing List Membership via
237: Majordomo</font></h2>
1.1 deraadt 238: <p>
1.57 horacio 239: If you want to be sent a complete list with all mailing lists available
1.66 nick 240: at openbsd.org, send the command "<tt>lists</tt>" on the body of
1.57 horacio 241: a message to
242: <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>.
1.28 louis 243:
244: <p>
1.66 nick 245: To subscribe to a given list, send mail to
246: <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>
247: with a message body of "<b>subscribe mailing-list-name</b>".
248:
249: <p>
250: For further assistance, send a message body of "<b>help</b>"
1.57 horacio 251: to <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>
1.13 deraadt 252: and you will receive a reply outlining all your options. Your domain
1.66 nick 253: <b>MUST</b> resolve properly or the mail will not go through!
1.1 deraadt 254:
1.66 nick 255:
256: <a name="Web"></a>
257: <h2><font color="#e00000">Managing Mailing List Membership via
258: Web</font></h2>
259: Your membership to the OpenBSD mailing lists can also be managed via
260: a web interface at:
261: <blockquote>
262: <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org/">http://lists.openbsd.org/</a>
263: </blockquote>
264:
265:
266: <a name="Tricks"></a>
267: <h2><font color="#e00000">Mailing Lists Tricks</font></h2>
268: There are a number of very useful options that can be selected, either
269: by the <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org">web interface</a> or through
270: <a href="mailto:majordomo@openbsd.org">Majordomo</a>. You can change
271: your email address without having to unsubscribe and resubscribe, you
1.69 nick 272: can temporarily disable your message delivery for a few days while you go on
1.66 nick 273: vacation, and much more. The user is invited to spend some time reading
274: through the options, available by sending
275: <a href="mailto:majordomo@openbsd.org">Majordomo</a> a message
276: containing "<tt>help</tt>" as the body text, or through the
277: "<tt>Help</tt>" tab of the <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org">web
278: interface</a>.
279:
280: <p>
281: As an example, if you were going on vacation for two weeks and didn't
1.69 nick 282: wish to come back to several thousand e-mails, you can disable
1.70 nick 283: message delivery by the mail server for the time of your vacation and have
284: delivery automatically resume upon your scheduled return using the command:
1.66 nick 285: <pre>
1.82 nick 286: set ALL nomail-14d
1.66 nick 287: </pre>
1.68 nick 288: This will suspend your subscription to all mail lists for 14 days
289: (<tt>-14d</tt>). More details and options can be seen on the
1.90 grunk 290: <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr?&user=&passw=&list=GLOBAL&func=help&extra=overview">Majordomo
1.68 nick 291: overview page</a>.
292:
1.66 nick 293:
294: <h3>Digests</h3>
295: If you would prefer to see a "digest" (a consolidated listing of all the
296: messages for a time period), rather than getting messages individually
297: in "real-time" form, you can use the commands:
298: <pre>
299: set misc digest-daily
300: set source-changes digest-weekly
301: </pre>
302: for daily digests of the <b>misc</b> list, and weekly digests of the
303: <b>source-changes</b> list. Yes, multiple commands can be placed in one
304: Majordomo email.
305:
306:
307: <a name="OtherLists"></a>
308: <h2><font color="#e00000">Other Mailing Lists</font></h2>
309: <p>
310: The fine folks at
311: <a href="http://www.squish.net/openbsd/">squish.net</a> run mailing
312: lists with daily and weekly digests of the OpenBSD <b>source-changes</b>
313: and <b>ports-changes</b> mailing list. This is handy for those who
1.72 nick 314: don't like the typically high volume of these lists.
1.42 millert 315:
316: <p>
1.108 merdely 317: The insomniac at <a href="http://www.benzedrine.cx/mailinglist.html">benzedrine.cx</a>
1.66 nick 318: maintains the <b>pf</b> list for people using the OpenBSD
1.61 dhartmei 319: packet filter. To subscribe:
320: <br>
321: echo subscribe | mail pf-request@benzedrine.cx
322:
1.66 nick 323: <a name="nonEnglish"></a>
324: <h2><font color="#e00000">Non-English Lists</font></h2>
1.28 louis 325:
1.66 nick 326: Several non-English speaking mailing lists related to OpenBSD are available
1.59 miod 327: separately. Here is a list of the currently known mailing lists:
328:
329: <!--
330: PLEASE KEEP THIS LIST SORTED, EXCEPT FOR TRANSLATIONS, WHERE YOU SHOULD PUT
331: THE LIST IN YOUR LANGUAGE, IF ONE EXISTS, HEAD OF LIST.
332: -->
333:
334: <p>
1.84 otto 335: Dutch:
336: <b>openbsd@list.ii.nl</b>
337: <br>To subscribe, visit the URL at:
338: <a href="http://list.ii.nl/listinfo/openbsd">http://list.ii.nl/listinfo/openbsd</a>.
339:
340: <p>
1.71 todd 341: French:
1.100 aanriot 342: <b>misc@openbsd-france.org</b>
1.71 todd 343: <br>To subscribe, visit the URL at:
1.117 gilles 344: <a href="http://www.openbsd-france.org/communaute.php">http://www.openbsd-france.org/communaute.php</a>.
1.71 todd 345:
346: <p>
1.59 miod 347: Italian:
1.66 nick 348: <a href="http://www.sikurezza.org/">sikurezza.org</a>, an Italian language
349: non-commercial security portal hosts <b>openbsd@sikurezza.org</b>.
1.59 miod 350: <br>To subscribe just send an empty message to <a
351: href="mailto:openbsd-subscribe@sikurezza.org">openbsd-subscribe@sikurezza.org</a>.
352:
353: <p>
1.114 syuu 354: Japanese:
355: <b>openbsd-japan@googlegroups.com</b><br>
356: To subscribe, please visit
357: <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/openbsd-japan">
358: http://groups.google.com/group/openbsd-japan</a>
359:
360: <p>
1.93 grunk 361: Polish:
362: <b>openbsd@lists.bsd.org.pl</b><br>
363: To subscribe, send mail with subject "subscribe" to
364: <a href="mailto:openbsd-request@lists.bsd.org.pl">openbsd-request@lists.bsd.org.pl</a>.
1.24 deraadt 365:
366: <p>
1.59 miod 367: Portuguese:
1.66 nick 368: <b>openbsd@neei.uevora.pt</b>
1.59 miod 369: <br>To subscribe, visit the URL at:
370: <a href="http://neei.uevora.pt/mailman/listinfo/openbsd/">http://neei.uevora.pt/mailman/listinfo/openbsd/</a>.
371:
372: <p>
1.60 miod 373: Russian:
1.66 nick 374: <b>openbsd@openbsd.ru</b>
1.47 form 375: <br>To subscribe, send mail to
376: <a href="mailto:minimalist@openbsd.ru">minimalist@openbsd.ru</a> with
1.66 nick 377: subject "<b>subscribe openbsd</b>".
1.34 form 378:
379: <p>
1.73 nick 380: Slovenian:
381: to subscribe please visit the URL at
382: <a href="http://obsd.17slon.org/mailinglist.php"
383: >http://obsd.17slon.org/mailinglist.php</a>
384:
385: <p>
1.62 fgsch 386: Spanish:
1.91 grunk 387: <b>OpenBSD-Mexico@googlegroups.com</b>, run from Mexico.
388: <br>To subscribe, please visit
389: <a href="http://groups.google.com.mx/group/OpenBSD-Mexico">
390: http://groups.google.com.mx/group/OpenBSD-Mexico</a>
1.49 horacio 391:
392: <p>
1.101 steven 393: Ukrainian:
394: <b>openbsd@uaoug.org.ua</b>
395: <br>To subscribe, send mail to
396: <a href="mailto:openbsd+subscribe@uaoug.org.ua">
397: openbsd+subscribe@uaoug.org.ua</a>
398:
399: <p>
1.66 nick 400: <a name="Archives"></a>
401: <h2><font color="#e00000">Mailing List Archives:</font></h2>
402: These mailing list archives are not managed by the OpenBSD project.
403: Take the time to look at more than one -- each is a little different,
404: and has different search abilities. If you don't find an answer in
405: one, check another.
406:
1.19 deraadt 407: <ul>
1.106 martynas 408: <li><a href="http://marc.info/">MARC</a>
1.120 sthen 409: <li><a href="http://dir.gmane.org/index.php?prefix=gmane.os.openbsd">Gmane</a> (also available by <a href="nntp://news.gmane.org/">NNTP</a>)
1.57 horacio 410: <li>Neohapsis has a
411: <a href="http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/openbsd/">mixed archive
412: for tech@, misc@ and ports@</a> and a
413: <a href="http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/openbsd/cvs/">mixed
414: archive for CVS commits</a>
1.120 sthen 415: <li><a href="http://www.sigmasoft.com/~openbsd/archives/">Sigmasoft</a> has posts up to March 2010
416: <li><a href="http://www.monkey.org/openbsd/">Monkey.org</a> has posts up to June 2009
1.19 deraadt 417: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 418:
1.97 nick 419: <p>
420: General search engines, such as
421: <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a> also prove very effective at
422: finding answers to OpenBSD questions.
423:
1.103 reyk 424: <p>
425: <a name="Feeds"></a>
426: <h2><font color="#e00000">RSS Feeds:</font></h2>
427: There are also some RSS feeds available. Most recent web browsers will
428: support RSS feeds, but there are also a number of RSS readers available.
429: The RSS feeds are not managed by the OpenBSD project.
430:
431: <ul>
432: <li><a href="http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=rss">OpenBSD Journal</a>
433: <li><a href="http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=errata">OpenBSD Errata (provided by the OpenBSD Journal)</a>
434: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 435:
436: </body>
437: </html>