MAILOMATIC STEP BY STEP SCRIPT CONFIGURATION HELP
Author: Arwana

MAILOMATIC V1.6
SCRIPT CONFIGURATION HELP
Last Updated May 2001
an Online Mail Manager for Unix/BSD/Linux
Copyright Paul Ryan, 2001

A Step-by-Step Guide
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Introduction
Mailomatic was designed for simple installation and use. Install the four flat files (*.txt) into a directory and make them read/write/executable by the 'world' - chmod 777 in the vernacular. Dynamic read/write files are always a security problem for web servers, so to lessen the chances of someone introducing a trojan (or worse) into your system, it is great if you can make a seperate directory 'below' your base http directory. On most servers, this will be where they have put your site 'log' directory - for the very same reasons as I have outlined above. You HAVE to use a 'path' address to access these files. If you don't know what I am talking about or if your server doesn't allow this, make a separate directory off your main directory (call it 'mailomatic' if you want) and put the *.txt files here. Usually it will enough to chmod the files only, but it could be that your server requires you also to make the whole directory chmod 777.
Now, open the mailomatic.pl in a text editor and set it up for your machine/site. The following faq should help with any basic problems with installation and/or configuration.After editing, save and upload to your cgi-bin and chmod 755.

If you experience problems that this faq doesn't address, feel free to contact me at mailomatic@mujik.com - I will do my
best to get back to you in a reasonable time frame but no promises :)

1) Set the "return path" to the page you want the script to finish at when the user is finished using it. Mostly this will be the 'page' they started at - the page with the user interface on it. For more information on configuring the user interface,click here.

$webform = "http://www.mydomain.com.au/contacts.html";

In the default example, I have used a 'contacts' page. If the user interface is on the home page, you would something like" http://www.mydomiain.com.au/home.html"

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2) Set the NAME of your list. Please include any leading 'the' or 'A' etc - this variable is used constantly within the script, so the syntax is important. For example, it the name of your list is "Zebra" , the line eventually printed would output as "Welcome to Zebra ". It would be perhaps more readable if you said 'A' or 'The' and included the word 'list' or 'post' so that the end result would be "Welcome to A\The Zebra List\Post".
I hope this is not confusing - we left it like this so the maxim scope for 'naming your lists' - eg: "Welcome to them Old Time Heavy Metal Blues Organisational Mailing Missives" would be possible.

$htmllistname = "the MY Domain HTML List";
$textlistname = "the My Domain TEXT List";

As mentioned earlier, there are two lists in the default setup of mailomatic - a html and a text list. This setting allows you to give them both individual 'Titles'.

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3) This sets the base address of your website - www.mydomain.com.au or www.theirdomain.com.au/myarea/ . This is used in links to back to your site (ie: 'back to <a href="http://$website>$website</a>". Don't use any forward or trailing slashes (ie: no relative urls such as "../../myarea" and no "www.mydomain.co.au/ ").

$website ="www.my domain.com.au";

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4) This is the full http: address of the script - ie: http://www.mydomain.com.au/cgi-bin/mailomatic.pl.
Do not use relative directories or your base 'path' as this value is used in the automatic subscribes/delete reply
'urls' in the confirmation mails the script sends.

$cgiurl="http://www.mydomain.com.au/cgi-bin/mailomatic.pl";

Just remember, if you rename the script (say, to mailomatic.cgi) you will have to change it here as well.
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5) The following four settings are for the data files for both lists - one each for the actual list addresses and one for storing the file you create when 'editing' new messages. A good idea is to put the lists 'below' your public_html directory - in the example in the script, we have created a special directory called 'protected' and put all the data files there.
These files are never directly accessed via http:, rather they are used by the script, to generate the necessary lists and posts. By putting them in a directory that http: can't access (ie: 'below' the public_html directory), you make them very secure and don't affect the running of the script one iota. If you don't understand what I am talking about or if you are on a 'free' server that doesn't give you full ftp rights, you will have to put them in another directory - preferably in your cgi-bin. (ie: http://www.mydomain.com.au/cgi-bin/maildata/tlist.txt).

$textfile = "/u131/home/m/mydomain/protected/tlist.txt";
$htmlfile ="/u131/home//m/mydomain/protected/hlist.txt";
$textnotice = "/u131//home/m/mydomain/protected/tnotice.txt";
$htmlnotice ="/u131/home/m/mydomain/protected/hnotice.txt";

Remember, you have to make all these files 'read/write/executable' - chmod 777. This may be a security risk which is why you are better putting them below the public_html or in a special directory in your cgi-bin. Also be aware that if you use http: addressing (either full of relative) you will have trouble on virtual servers - a security issue about writing to files via http: I surmise, but very real and the script may not work. Stick to the "path" format; you will be more secure and you shouldn't have any problems getting the dynamic read/write to work.

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6) This sets the return name (not address - that is next) you want to appear on the mail list posts. There is a seperate line for both the default lists (html & text) so both your customer and yourself will always know which list the post belongs to.

$textuname = "My Domain Text News";
$htmluname = "My Domain Music HTML News";

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7) This sets the return address - this compliments the previous setting and is the actual address you want people to send replies to. This can be two different address or both can be the same - up to you how you want to manage the lists. All replies, failure to send etc will come to this address.

$textaddress = "list\@mydomain.com.au";
$htmladdress = "list\@mydomain.com.au";

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8) To allow access to the admin panel, you input a 'special' password inot the user interface. By default, the script includes 'mom' as the special word -we strongly suggest that you change this.
$admin = "mom";

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9) The following settings are the location of the 'sendmail' , 'date' and 'sort' programs on your machine. If you have telnet access to your server, use the 'whereis <program>' command to find these paths, otherwise you will need to talk to your system administrator. These calls are the main reason this is a UNIX based script - everything else should work on MS IIS but whether or not IIS supports these calls is doubtful. The defaults should be fairly standard and will probably work (on a Unix based machine)

$mailprog="/usr/lib/sendmail";
$date_command = "/bin/date";
$sort="/bin/sort";

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