Annotation of www/mail.html, Revision 1.137
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1.58 jsyn 13: <a href="index.html"><img alt="[OpenBSD]" height="30" width="141" src="images/smalltitle.gif" border="0"></a>
1.25 deraadt 14: <p>
1.129 deraadt 15: <h2><font color="#e00000">Mailing Lists</font></h2>
1.57 horacio 16: <hr>
1.7 downsj 17:
1.66 nick 18: Mailing lists are an important means of communication among users and
1.121 tedu 19: developers of OpenBSD. With the exception of <b>announce</b>,
20: the lists are not moderated. We deliberately
1.66 nick 21: restrict the number of different mailing lists.
22: This helps reduce the amount of cross-posting and makes sure that the
23: information gets distributed to a wide audience.
24:
1.28 louis 25: <p>
1.66 nick 26: <a name="Netiquette"></a>
27: <h2><font color="#e00000">Netiquette</font></h2>
1.28 louis 28: <p>
29: Be considerate of other subscribers on the mailing lists.
30: <dl>
1.66 nick 31: <dt><b>Plain text, 72 characters per line</b>
32: <dd>Many subscribers and developers read their mail on text-based mailers
33: (mail(1), emacs, Mutt)
1.45 millert 34: and they find HTML-formatted messages, or lines that stretch beyond 72
35: characters often unreadable.
36: Most OpenBSD mailing lists strip messages of MIME content before
37: sending them out to the rest of the list.
38: If you don't use plain text your messages will be reformatted or,
39: if they cannot be reformatted, summarily rejected.
1.66 nick 40: The only mailing list that allows attachments is the <b>ports</b> list,
1.45 millert 41: they will be removed from messages on the other mailing lists.
1.66 nick 42:
43: <dt><b>Do your homework before you post</b>
1.28 louis 44: <dd>If you have an installation question, make sure that you have read the relevant
45: documents such as the INSTALL.* text files in the FTP installation directories, the
1.57 horacio 46: <a href="faq/index.html">FAQ</a> and the relevant man pages (start with
1.66 nick 47: <a href= "http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=afterboot&sektion=8">afterboot(8)</a>),
48: and check the mailing list <a href="#Archives">archives</a>.
49: We want to help, but we wouldn't want to deprive you of a valuable
50: learning experience, and no one wants to see the same question on the
51: lists for the fifth time in a month.
52:
53: <dt><b>Include a useful Subject line</b>
1.45 millert 54: <dd>Messages with an empty Subject will get bounced to the list manager and
1.57 horacio 55: so they will take longer to show up. Including a relevant Subject in the message
1.45 millert 56: will ensure that more people actually read what you've written.
57: Also, avoid Subject lines with excessive capitalization.
1.96 jmc 58: "Help!" or "I can't get it to work!" are not useful subject lines.
1.66 nick 59: Do not change the subject line while on the same topic. YOU may know
60: what it is regarding, the rest of us who get several hundred messages a
61: day will have no idea.
62:
63: <dt><b>Trim your signature</b>
64: <dd>Keep the signature lines at the bottom of your mail to a reasonable
65: length. PGP signatures, and those automatic address cards are merely
66: annoying and are stripped out. Legal disclaimers and advisories are
67: very annoying, and inappropriate to public mailing lists.
68:
69: <dt><b>Stay on topic</b>
1.28 louis 70: <dd>Please keep the subject of the post relevant to users of OpenBSD.
1.66 nick 71:
72: <dt><b>Include important information</b>
73: <dd>Don't waste everyone's time with a hopelessly incomplete question.
74: No one other than you has the information needed to resolve your
75: problem, it is better to provide more information than needed than one
76: detail too little. Any question should include at least the
77: <a href="faq/faq5.html#Flavors">version</a> of OpenBSD (i.e.,
78: "3.2-stable", "3.3-current as of July 20, 2003"). Any hardware related
1.69 nick 79: questions should mention the platform (i.e., sparc,
1.66 nick 80: alpha, etc.), and provide a full
1.70 nick 81: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=dmesg&sektion=8">dmesg(8)</a>.
1.66 nick 82: Hardware model numbers, unfortunately, don't indicate much about the
83: actual content of a particular machine or accessory, and are useless to
84: anyone who doesn't have that exact machine sitting where they can easily
85: recognize it. The dmesg(8) tells us exactly what is IN your machine,
86: not what stickers are on the outside.
87:
88: <dt><b>Respect differences in opinion and philosophy</b>
89: <dd>Intelligent people may look at the same set of facts and come to
90: very different conclusions. Repeating the same points that didn't
91: convince someone previously rarely changes their mind and irritates all
92: the other readers.
93:
94: <dt><b>Do not cross-post or repeat post</b>
95: <dd>Posting the same message to multiple lists and/or multiple times
96: does not increase the likelihood of getting a useful response, but is
97: likely to irritate the people you want to help you. If you didn't get a
98: satisfactory response the first time you posted to an appropriate list,
99: it is usually because you provided insufficient or unclear information.
100: Don't simply repost the same message.
101:
1.28 louis 102: </dl>
1.1 deraadt 103:
1.33 millert 104: <p>
1.66 nick 105: <a name="spam"></a>
106: <h2><font color="#e00000">Spam</font></h2>
1.33 millert 107: <p>
1.66 nick 108: The OpenBSD mailing lists use
1.78 millert 109: <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 110: <a href="http://www.spamassassin.org">SpamAssassin</a> to keep down the
1.87 millert 111: spam volume but things do sneak through--deal with it.
1.66 nick 112: In addition, the list server also has regex-based rules to reject
1.87 millert 113: based on some common spam and virus telltales.
114: If you get spam through one of the OpenBSD mailing lists, you don't need to
115: send a copy to the list owner--chances are he's already seen it.
116: Also, please do <b>not</b> submit spam received through the
117: mailing lists to <a href="http://spamcop.net">spamcop</a>
118: as this will result in the list server being added to their RBL.
119: Complaining about and commenting upon spam on the list proper
120: is counter-productive as it generates more traffic than the spam itself.
121: <p>
1.77 millert 122: Note that if you are sending mail from a dynamic IP address you
123: will probably <b>not</b> be able to post to the mailing lists.
1.136 tb 124: In this case, you should use a <em>smart host</em> mail configuration
125: that utilizes your ISP's mail server. See the examples in
126: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=smtpd.conf">
127: smtpd.conf(5)</a> for how to do this.
1.66 nick 128:
129:
130: <a name="Lists"></a>
131: <h2><font color="#e00000">The Mailing Lists</font></h2>
1.33 millert 132:
1.66 nick 133: <h3>General Interest Lists</h3>
134: These lists are of interest to most users of OpenBSD.
1.1 deraadt 135: <dl>
1.66 nick 136:
137: <dt><b>misc</b>
138: <dd>User questions and answers, general questions. This is the most
139: active list. Please, <a href="faq/index.html">read the FAQ</a> and the
140: installation documents, and see <a href="report.html">How to report a
141: Problem</a> before posting.
142:
143: <dt><b>advocacy</b>
144: <dd>Promoting the use of OpenBSD. Non-technical discussions in
145: <i>misc</i> often get shunted here.
146:
147: <dt><b>announce</b>
148: <dd>Important announcements. This low volume list is excellent for
149: people who just want occasional news about the project.
150:
151: <dt><b>ports</b>
152: <dd>Discussions about using and contributing to the 'ports' source tree.
153:
1.127 tedu 154: </dl>
155:
1.66 nick 156: <h3>Developer's Lists</h3>
157: These lists are for technical discussions of aspects of OpenBSD. They
158: are NOT for beginning or average users, they are not for problem
159: reporting (unless you are including a good fix), and they are not for
160: installation problems. If you have any question about if a message
161: should be posted to any of these lists, almost invariably, it should not
162: be. Use <b>misc</b>, above, instead. <b>Please</b> do not cross post
163: to multiple lists.
164:
165: <dl>
166: <dt><b>bugs</b>
1.57 horacio 167: <dd><a href="report.html">Bug reports</a> as sent in via
1.66 nick 168: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=sendbug&sektion=1">sendbug(1)</a>
1.119 nick 169: and follow-up discussions.
1.66 nick 170:
171: <dt><b>tech</b>
172: <dd>Discussion of technical topics for OpenBSD developers and advanced
173: users. This is <b>not</b> a "tech support" forum, do not use it as
174: such.
1.86 nick 175: OpenBSD developers will often make patches to implement new features
176: and other important changes available for public testing through this
177: list.
1.134 doug 178:
179: <dt><b>libressl</b>
180: <dd>Technical discussion about native and portable LibreSSL.
181: Users of LibreSSL on any operating system are welcome to participate.
182: Patches for the native LibreSSL should be sent to this list and use
183: OpenBSD's CVS tree or a git mirror of it.
184: Patches for the portable bits should be pull requests on
185: <a href="https://github.com/libressl-portable">github</a>.
186: </dl>
187:
188: <h3>Security Lists</h3>
189: These private lists are for reporting vulnerabilities to the OpenBSD team.
190:
191: <dl>
192: <dt><b>libressl-security</b>
193: <dd>Report vulnerabilities related to OpenSSL or LibreSSL to the core
194: LibreSSL team.
1.123 deraadt 195: </dl>
1.66 nick 196:
197: <h3>Platform Specific Lists</h3>
198: These lists are focused on user issues and development on individual
199: platforms.
200: <dl>
201: <dt><b>alpha</b>
202: <dd>OpenBSD/alpha port
203:
1.75 miod 204: <dt><b>arm</b>
1.105 deanna 205: <dd>OpenBSD/zaurus port and other ARM porting efforts
1.75 miod 206:
1.66 nick 207: <dt><b>hppa</b>
208: <dd>OpenBSD/hppa port
209:
1.98 miod 210: <dt><b>m88k</b>
1.137 ! tb 211: <dd>OpenBSD/luna88k and OpenBSD/mvme88k ports
1.98 miod 212:
1.66 nick 213: <dt><b>ppc</b>
1.81 nick 214: <dd>OpenBSD/macppc and other PowerPC porting efforts
1.66 nick 215:
1.109 jsing 216: <dt><b>sgi</b>
217: <dd>OpenBSD/sgi port
218:
1.66 nick 219: <dt><b>sparc</b>
220: <dd>OpenBSD/sparc and OpenBSD/sparc64 ports
221:
222: <dt><b>vax</b>
223: <dd>OpenBSD/vax port
224: </dl>
225:
226: <h3>CVS Changes Mailing Lists</h3>
227: Every time a developer commits a change to the OpenBSD
1.130 jcs 228: CVS tree, a message is mailed out to all the subscribers
1.66 nick 229: of these lists, containing the commit comments.
230:
231: <dl>
232: <dt><b>source-changes</b>
233: <dd>Automated mail-out of CVS source tree changes in all the repositories
234: other than <i>ports</i>.
235:
236: <dt><b>ports-changes</b>
237: <dd>Automated mail-out of ports-specific CVS source tree changes.
1.1 deraadt 238: </dl>
239:
1.116 sthen 240: <a name="Mirrors"></a>
241: <h3>Mirror-related Mailing Lists</h3>
242: Announcements and discussion relating to mirrors of OpenBSD.
243:
244: <dl>
245: <dt><b>mirrors-announce</b>
246: <dd>This is a moderated list used solely for important announcements
247: to operators of OpenBSD mirrors.
248:
249: <dt><b>mirrors-discuss</b>
250: <dd>Discussion relating to OpenBSD mirrors.
251: </dl>
252:
1.66 nick 253: <a name="Majordomo"></a>
254: <h2><font color="#e00000">Managing Mailing List Membership via
255: Majordomo</font></h2>
1.1 deraadt 256: <p>
1.57 horacio 257: If you want to be sent a complete list with all mailing lists available
1.66 nick 258: at openbsd.org, send the command "<tt>lists</tt>" on the body of
1.57 horacio 259: a message to
260: <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>.
1.28 louis 261:
262: <p>
1.66 nick 263: To subscribe to a given list, send mail to
264: <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>
265: with a message body of "<b>subscribe mailing-list-name</b>".
266:
267: <p>
268: For further assistance, send a message body of "<b>help</b>"
1.57 horacio 269: to <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>
1.13 deraadt 270: and you will receive a reply outlining all your options. Your domain
1.66 nick 271: <b>MUST</b> resolve properly or the mail will not go through!
1.1 deraadt 272:
1.66 nick 273:
274: <a name="Web"></a>
275: <h2><font color="#e00000">Managing Mailing List Membership via
276: Web</font></h2>
277: Your membership to the OpenBSD mailing lists can also be managed via
278: a web interface at:
279: <blockquote>
280: <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org/">http://lists.openbsd.org/</a>
281: </blockquote>
282:
283:
284: <a name="Tricks"></a>
285: <h2><font color="#e00000">Mailing Lists Tricks</font></h2>
286: There are a number of very useful options that can be selected, either
287: by the <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org">web interface</a> or through
288: <a href="mailto:majordomo@openbsd.org">Majordomo</a>. You can change
289: your email address without having to unsubscribe and resubscribe, you
1.69 nick 290: can temporarily disable your message delivery for a few days while you go on
1.66 nick 291: vacation, and much more. The user is invited to spend some time reading
292: through the options, available by sending
293: <a href="mailto:majordomo@openbsd.org">Majordomo</a> a message
294: containing "<tt>help</tt>" as the body text, or through the
295: "<tt>Help</tt>" tab of the <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org">web
296: interface</a>.
297:
298: <p>
299: As an example, if you were going on vacation for two weeks and didn't
1.69 nick 300: wish to come back to several thousand e-mails, you can disable
1.70 nick 301: message delivery by the mail server for the time of your vacation and have
302: delivery automatically resume upon your scheduled return using the command:
1.66 nick 303: <pre>
1.82 nick 304: set ALL nomail-14d
1.66 nick 305: </pre>
1.68 nick 306: This will suspend your subscription to all mail lists for 14 days
307: (<tt>-14d</tt>). More details and options can be seen on the
1.90 grunk 308: <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr?&user=&passw=&list=GLOBAL&func=help&extra=overview">Majordomo
1.68 nick 309: overview page</a>.
310:
1.66 nick 311:
312: <h3>Digests</h3>
313: If you would prefer to see a "digest" (a consolidated listing of all the
314: messages for a time period), rather than getting messages individually
315: in "real-time" form, you can use the commands:
316: <pre>
317: set misc digest-daily
318: set source-changes digest-weekly
319: </pre>
320: for daily digests of the <b>misc</b> list, and weekly digests of the
321: <b>source-changes</b> list. Yes, multiple commands can be placed in one
322: Majordomo email.
323:
324:
325: <a name="OtherLists"></a>
326: <h2><font color="#e00000">Other Mailing Lists</font></h2>
327: <p>
328: The fine folks at
329: <a href="http://www.squish.net/openbsd/">squish.net</a> run mailing
330: lists with daily and weekly digests of the OpenBSD <b>source-changes</b>
331: and <b>ports-changes</b> mailing list. This is handy for those who
1.72 nick 332: don't like the typically high volume of these lists.
1.42 millert 333:
334: <p>
1.132 sthen 335: The insomniac at <a href="http://www.benzedrine.ch/mailinglist.html">benzedrine.ch</a>
1.66 nick 336: maintains the <b>pf</b> list for people using the OpenBSD
1.61 dhartmei 337: packet filter. To subscribe:
338: <br>
1.132 sthen 339: echo subscribe | mail pf-request@benzedrine.ch
1.61 dhartmei 340:
1.66 nick 341: <a name="nonEnglish"></a>
342: <h2><font color="#e00000">Non-English Lists</font></h2>
1.28 louis 343:
1.66 nick 344: Several non-English speaking mailing lists related to OpenBSD are available
1.59 miod 345: separately. Here is a list of the currently known mailing lists:
346:
347: <!--
348: PLEASE KEEP THIS LIST SORTED, EXCEPT FOR TRANSLATIONS, WHERE YOU SHOULD PUT
349: THE LIST IN YOUR LANGUAGE, IF ONE EXISTS, HEAD OF LIST.
350: -->
351:
352: <p>
1.84 otto 353: Dutch:
354: <b>openbsd@list.ii.nl</b>
355: <br>To subscribe, visit the URL at:
356: <a href="http://list.ii.nl/listinfo/openbsd">http://list.ii.nl/listinfo/openbsd</a>.
357:
358: <p>
1.71 todd 359: French:
1.100 aanriot 360: <b>misc@openbsd-france.org</b>
1.71 todd 361: <br>To subscribe, visit the URL at:
1.117 gilles 362: <a href="http://www.openbsd-france.org/communaute.php">http://www.openbsd-france.org/communaute.php</a>.
1.71 todd 363:
364: <p>
1.59 miod 365: Italian:
1.66 nick 366: <a href="http://www.sikurezza.org/">sikurezza.org</a>, an Italian language
367: non-commercial security portal hosts <b>openbsd@sikurezza.org</b>.
1.59 miod 368: <br>To subscribe just send an empty message to <a
369: href="mailto:openbsd-subscribe@sikurezza.org">openbsd-subscribe@sikurezza.org</a>.
370:
371: <p>
1.114 syuu 372: Japanese:
373: <b>openbsd-japan@googlegroups.com</b><br>
374: To subscribe, please visit
375: <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/openbsd-japan">
376: http://groups.google.com/group/openbsd-japan</a>
377:
1.131 sthen 378: <p>
1.59 miod 379: Portuguese:
1.66 nick 380: <b>openbsd@neei.uevora.pt</b>
1.59 miod 381: <br>To subscribe, visit the URL at:
382: <a href="http://neei.uevora.pt/mailman/listinfo/openbsd/">http://neei.uevora.pt/mailman/listinfo/openbsd/</a>.
1.34 form 383:
384: <p>
1.73 nick 385: Slovenian:
386: to subscribe please visit the URL at
387: <a href="http://obsd.17slon.org/mailinglist.php"
388: >http://obsd.17slon.org/mailinglist.php</a>
389:
390: <p>
1.62 fgsch 391: Spanish:
1.91 grunk 392: <b>OpenBSD-Mexico@googlegroups.com</b>, run from Mexico.
393: <br>To subscribe, please visit
394: <a href="http://groups.google.com.mx/group/OpenBSD-Mexico">
395: http://groups.google.com.mx/group/OpenBSD-Mexico</a>
1.49 horacio 396:
397: <p>
1.101 steven 398: Ukrainian:
399: <b>openbsd@uaoug.org.ua</b>
400: <br>To subscribe, send mail to
401: <a href="mailto:openbsd+subscribe@uaoug.org.ua">
402: openbsd+subscribe@uaoug.org.ua</a>
403:
404: <p>
1.66 nick 405: <a name="Archives"></a>
406: <h2><font color="#e00000">Mailing List Archives:</font></h2>
407: These mailing list archives are not managed by the OpenBSD project.
408: Take the time to look at more than one -- each is a little different,
409: and has different search abilities. If you don't find an answer in
410: one, check another.
411:
1.19 deraadt 412: <ul>
1.106 martynas 413: <li><a href="http://marc.info/">MARC</a>
1.120 sthen 414: <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 415: <li>Neohapsis has a
416: <a href="http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/openbsd/">mixed archive
417: for tech@, misc@ and ports@</a> and a
418: <a href="http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/openbsd/cvs/">mixed
419: archive for CVS commits</a>
1.120 sthen 420: <li><a href="http://www.sigmasoft.com/~openbsd/archives/">Sigmasoft</a> has posts up to March 2010
421: <li><a href="http://www.monkey.org/openbsd/">Monkey.org</a> has posts up to June 2009
1.19 deraadt 422: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 423:
1.97 nick 424: <p>
425: General search engines, such as
426: <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a> also prove very effective at
427: finding answers to OpenBSD questions.
428:
1.103 reyk 429: <p>
430: <a name="Feeds"></a>
431: <h2><font color="#e00000">RSS Feeds:</font></h2>
432: There are also some RSS feeds available. Most recent web browsers will
433: support RSS feeds, but there are also a number of RSS readers available.
434: The RSS feeds are not managed by the OpenBSD project.
435:
436: <ul>
437: <li><a href="http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=rss">OpenBSD Journal</a>
438: <li><a href="http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=errata">OpenBSD Errata (provided by the OpenBSD Journal)</a>
439: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 440:
441: </body>
442: </html>