Sympa Mailing List Server

The server is currently running on Centos 5. The server also requires apache, mysql (or mariadb) and exim to be installed. Main file locations are –

  • /home/sympa – live distribution directory
  • /etc/sympa.conf – main configuration file
  • /etc/mail/sympa_aliases – main alias file

The sympa service can be stopped and started using the init.d scripts e.g.

# /etc/init.d/sympa start

Admin Console:

Access the management console via a browser using the URL –

http://cmc-mlist.qub.ac.uk/sympa

You need to create a login the first time you access it using your email address as the account name. This should match the list manager address set in /etc/sympa.conf.

When you create a new list always use cmc-mlist.qub.ac.uk as the domain name. Sometimes when a new list is created and then the domain name is subsequently changed the alias entries for the list in /etc/mail/sympa_aliases may become garbled. If that happens edit the entries in the aliases file and restart sympa.

Mailhub Routing File:

The script /root/scripts/mx_alias.sh produces the file /home/sympa/tmp/mlist_table.dat that can be used for routing on the mailhubs. The script is run hourly and the mailhubs can retrieve the file using scp.