$Id: flame-FAQ.txt,v 1.7 1998/11/07 19:24:07 explorer Exp $ FAQ for flame.org accounts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Some of these questions are pretty fictional. Please bear with me here. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Index: 0. Contact addresses 1. What can I do with my account? 2. Can I put something up for web access? 2.1 How do I put something up for web access? 2.2 How do I get listed in http://www.flame.org/flame/users? 2.3 How do I keep others with accounts on flame.org from reading in my WWW directory? 3. I'd like something installed. Who do I ask? 4. What do I do when I forget my password? 5. Can I run a small mailing list on flame.org? 5.1 How do I set it up? 5.2 How do I remove someone from it manually? 5.3 How do I add someone manually? 5.4 How do I list who is subscribed? 5.5 Can I make it a closed subscription list? 5.6 How about closed posting (moderated posting)? 5.7 How do I remove the list? 6. How do I forward my email to a different account? 7. How do I access my mail using POP? 7.1 POP was working, but now I am told that my password has expired. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Contact addresses Ok, so that's not a question. Here is a list of who to contact regarding things. Note that most of these people are just me (explorer@flame.org) in disguise, but if you use the aliases you'll help me sort my mail out. General: admin@flame.org Web problems: webmaster@flame.org Mail problems: postmaster@flame.org Michael: explorer@flame.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What can I do with my account? Read http://www.flame.org/flame/doc/policy.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Can I put something up for web access? Sure. Just remember to keep things somewhat small. I don't have unlimited space or network bandwidth. 2.1 How do I put something up for web access? Every user should have a /home/user and /www/user directory. The first, in /home, is where most of your files go. The ones in /www are where public web stuff goes. 2.2 How do I get listed in http://www.flame.org/flame/users? Create a file called ".wwwindex" in your WWW directory. Do this by typing, where "user" is your username: touch /www/user/.wwwindex chmod 644 /www/user/.wwwindex If you want a name to be listed, you can put that in a file called .wwwname, also in your WWW directory. echo "Real Name" > /www/user/.wwwname chmod 644 /www/user/.wwwname 2.3 How do I keep others with accounts on flame.org from reading in my WWW directory? Web pages are served from /www/user, and by default that directory is owned by the user, group www. This means if you remove world read permission with chmod 750, noone other than the web server can read there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. I'd like something installed. Who do I ask? You would ask me. Note that I might say "no" or ask you to justify it. Some things I simply will not install. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. What do I do when I forget my password? You would once again contact me. This seems to happen pretty often with people who use ssh RSA authentication most of the time, but when they screw up their files they need to remember their password. Most of the time, they seem not to remember it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Can I run a small mailing list on flame.org? Sure. Small lists are welcome. Small is currently defined as less than 1,000 users. If you seriously find that restriction hard to deal with, let me know. I'd actually like to see how well things hold up with a large list. 5.1 How do I set it up? Here is the recommended procedure. If you deviate from this too much, you had best know what you are doing. First, in case you want to run more than one list, I recommend making a subdirectory to hold all your lists in: mkdir ~/mlist To create the list, use "ezmlm-make" like this: ezmlm-make ~/mlist/foo ~/.qmail-foo username-foo flame.org For instance, if my username was "explorer" and I wanted a list called "tinkering" I would type: ezmlm-make ~/mlist/tinkering ~/.qmail-tinkering explorer-tinkering flame.org (all on one line, not split like it is above) It is recommended to change the first line in ~/mlist/foo/owner from a mailbox file to an email address, unless you plan on checking the contents of that file regularly. 5.2 How do I remove someone from it manually? For a list foo, if you want to remove bill@whitehouse.gov, type: ezmlm-unsub ~/mlist/foo bill@whitehouse.gov 5.3 How do I add someone manually? For a list foo, if you want to add bill@whitehouse.gov, type: ezmlm-sub ~/mlist/foo bill@whitehouse.gov 5.4 How do I list who is subscribed? For a list foo, type: ezmlm-list ~/mlist/foo 5.5 Can I make it a closed subscription list? Sure. Give ezmlm-make the flag "-s" when making the list: ezmlm-make -s ... For more options, look at the man page for ezmlm-make with man ezlml-make 5.6 How about closed posting (moderated posting)? Sure. Add the "-m" flag: ezmlm-make -m ... 5.7 How do I remove the list? For a list named "foo", remove any ~/.qmail files that "look" like they belong to list "foo" such as: ~/.qmail-foo ~/.qmail-foo-owner ~/.qmail-foo-default ~/.qmail-foo-return-default There could be others. Use your brain here. :) Then, remove the directory holding the list itself: rm -rf ~/mlist/foo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. How do I forward my email to a different account? All mail on flame.org uses QMail. For those of you familiar with the Sendmail .forward file, a .qmail file won't appear to be any stranger. To set up your e-mail alias on kechara: Using the editor of your choice, create a file called ".qmail" For example: vi .qmail In the file put your the e-mail address you wish your alias to point to: joeblow@foo.org To send your e-mail to multiple accounts, simply list them all, one per line: joeblow@foo.org tictac@blah.com dragon@bar.net Exit your editor. chmod 700 .qmail Note that your home directory must NOT be group or other writable. If either the directory containing .qmail, or the .qmail file itself is writable by anyone other than yourself you will not get any mail. Also, if you intend to run programs from the .qmail file, read the part about the execute bit in the man page. For more information see "man dot-qmail". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. How do I access my mail using POP? First, you CANNOT use the password you log in with to read your mail using POP. That simply does NOT work, and if you try, I will hurt you. To be able to receive your mail using POP, you need to contact me (via admin@flame.org) and ask that I create a new Kerberos identity for you. Mail me the initial password as well. Since your password will be sent in the clear each time you read your mail, it doesn't matter that you mail it, really. Once I tell you I have created the new principal, log into kechara and type: kinit user/ctppop replacing user with your login name. Once you have set a new password on the principal, type kdestroy to clean up, and give it a try. The pop server runs pop3 protocol, on the standard pop3 port, and the pop host should be set to pop.flame.org. Do NOT use the same password as you use to log into your flame.org account. Do not even make them close. If you do, I will find out, and I will not be happy. Remember also that accessing your mail in this way will expose the pop password to anyone who manages to know how to sniff packets between your host and mine. If you don't care who reads your mail (or deletes it, or sends it as you, etc) this is a pretty simple way to get your mail. 7.1 POP was working, but now I am told that my password has expired. Well, your password HAS expired. Log into your flame.org account and set it, as described above. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --Michael