Diggity dANk <dan(_at_)emd(_dot_)emdnet(_dot_)com> writes:
I was checking out some different recipies to mail all users on a
single system. Right now I have a text file of all the user (one per line)
that gets updated evertime a user is added. What would be the best way to
use procmail to do a single mass mailing to all the users using that list?
Would it be better to use a C program instead of procmail for better
performance?
Well you need to clearly define "all users". What about root? What
about accounts set up for the purpose of maintaining certain software
packages that require a separate user ID? What about users who have
mail aliases from the current host to their accounts elsewhere?
The way I handle this is to have an alias in /etc/aliases (assuming
you're the sysadmin and you are using sendmail). For the host
"komodo" I have an alias "komodo-users" that expands to the list of
users who use komodo. I maintain this alias by hand, but you could
replace the list in /etc/aliases with an :include: statement and run a
periodic cron job that updates a file with a list of users or make
create/remove user scripts that update the list.
You could take the list from /etc/passwd, and then check that the
shell provided is in /etc/shells, or perhaps that the home directory
is under /home (or wherever you have home directories on your
system).
I really don't see where procmail fits into this at all, to be
honest. For outgoing mail I use sendmail aliases and/or majordomo. I
only use procmail for sorting and spamproofing incoming mail.
--Bill.
--
William R Ward Bay View Consulting http://www.bayview.com/~hermit/
hermit(_at_)bayview(_dot_)com 1803 Mission St. #339 voicemail +1
408/479-4072
wrw(_at_)bayview(_dot_)com Santa Cruz CA 95060 USA pager +1
408/458-8862
PGP Key 0x2BD331E5; Public key at http://www.bayview.com/~hermit/pubkey.txt
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take off all your clothes and walk down the street waving a machete and
firing an Uzi, and terrified citizens will phone the police and report:
"There's a naked person outside!" - Mike Nichols