1.4 Basic Architectural Overview

From 3a258ad5cdd98c5705af6c02ba91993b3d382adc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Barry Warsaw Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 17:23:41 -0500 Subject: Because the admin directory is no longer included, the www directory isn't either, and that's where the generated docs used to live. So now, make this directory include the generated docs, removing the old IPC7 and LISA-98 directories, and the .tex source files. These latter are moved to the admin repository. --- doc/mailman-admin/node7.html | 147 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 147 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/mailman-admin/node7.html (limited to 'doc/mailman-admin/node7.html') diff --git a/doc/mailman-admin/node7.html b/doc/mailman-admin/node7.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8f41bc68 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/mailman-admin/node7.html @@ -0,0 +1,147 @@ + + + + + + + + + + + + + +1.4 Basic Architectural Overview + + + + + +

+1.4 Basic Architectural Overview +

+ +

+This section will outline the basic architecture of GNU Mailman, such +as how messages are processed by the sytem. Without going into lots +of detail, this information will help you understand how the +configuration options control Mailman's functionality. + +

+When mail enters the system from your mail server, it is dropped into +one of several Mailman queues depending on the address the +message was sent to. For example, if your system has a mailing list +named mylist and your domain is example.com, people can +post messages to your list by sending them to +mylist@example.com. These messages will be dropped into the +incoming queue, which is also colloquially called the +moderate-and-munge queue. The incoming queue is where most of +the approval process occurs, and it's also where the message is +prepared for sending out to the list membership. + +

+There are separate queues for the built-in archiver, the bounce +processor, the email command processor, as well as the outgoing email +and news queues. There's also a queue for messages generated by the +Mailman system. Each of these queues typically has one queue +runner (or ``qrunner'') that processes messages in the queue. The +qrunners are idle when there are no messages to process. + +

+Every message in the queues are represented by two files, a message +file and a metadata file. Both of these files share the same base +name, which is a combination of a unique hash and the Unix time that +the message was received. The metadata file has a suffix of +.db and the message file has a suffix of either .msg if +stored in plain text, or .pck if stored in a more efficient +internal representation¹. + +

+As a message moves through the incoming queue, it performs various +checks on the message, such as whether it matches one of the +moderation criteria, or contains disallowed MIME types. Once a +message is approved for sending to the list membership, the message is +prepared for sending by deleting, adding, or changing message headers, +adding footers, etc. Messages in the incoming queue may also be +stored for appending to digests. + +

Footnotes

... representation ¹: Specifically, a Python pickle + +

+ + + + + -- cgit v1.2.3