Next: 3. Installing Sympa Up: Sympa Mailing Lists Management Software version Previous: 1. Presentation Contents Index
Subsections

- 2.1 Organization
- 2.2 Binaries
- 2.3 Configuration files
- 2.4 Spools

# 2. what does Sympa consist of ?

#
2.1 Organization

Here is a snapshot of what Sympa looks like once it has settled down on your system. This also illustrates the Sympa philosophy, I guess. Almost all configuration files can be defined for a particular list, for a virtual robot or for the whole site.

- `/home/sympa`
  The root directory of Sympa. You will find almost everything related to Sympa under this directory, except logs and main configuration files.

- `/home/sympa/bin`
  This directory contains the binaries, including the CGI. It also contains the default authorization scenarios, templates and configuration files as in the distribution. `/home/sympa/bin` may be completely overwritten by the `make install` so you must not customize templates and authorization scenarios under `/home/sympa/bin`.

- `/home/sympa/bin/etc`
  Here Sympa stores the default versions of what it will otherwise find in `/home/sympa/etc` (task models, authorization scenarios, templates and configuration files, recognized S/Mime certificates).

- `/home/sympa/etc`
  This is your site's configuration directory. Consult `/home/sympa/bin/etc` when drawing up your own.

- `/home/sympa/etc/create_list_templates/`
  List templates (suggested at list creation time).

- `/home/sympa/etc/scenari/`
  This directory will contain your authorization scenarios. If you don't know what the hell an authorization scenario is, refer to 10 10, page . Those authorization scenarios are default scenarios but you may look at `/home/sympa/etc/my.domain.org/scenari/` for default scenarios of my.domain.org virtual robot and `/home/sympa/expl/mylist/scenari` for scenarios specific to a particular list

- `/home/sympa/etc/list_task_models/`
  This directory will store your own list task models (see 12.10, page ).

- `/home/sympa/etc/global_task_models/`
  Contains global task models of yours (see 12.10, page ).

- `/home/sympa/etc/wws_templates/`
  The web interface (WWSympa) is composed of template HTML files parsed by the CGI program. Templates can also be defined for a particular list in `/home/sympa/expl/mylist/wws_templates/` or in `/home/sympa/etc/my.domain.org/wws_templates/`

- `/home/sympa/etc/templates/`
  Some of the mail robot's replies are defined by templates (`welcome.tpl` for SUBSCRIBE). You can overload these template files in the individual list directories or for each virtual robot, but these are the defaults.

- `/home/sympa/etc/my.domain.org`
  The directory to define the virtual robot my.domain.orgdedicated to managment of all lists of this domain (list description of my.domain.orgare stored in `/home/sympa/expl/my.domain.org`). Those directories for virtual robots have the same structure as `/home/sympa/etc` which is the configuration dir of the default robot.

- `/home/sympa/expl`
  Sympa's working directory.

- `/home/sympa/expl/mylist`
  The list directory (refer to , page ). Lists stored in this directory belong to the default robot as defined in sympa.conf file, but a list can be stored in `/home/sympa/expl/my.domain.org/mylist` directory and it is managed by my.domain.orgvirtual robot.

- `/home/sympa/expl/X509-user-certs`
  The directory where Sympa stores all user's certificates

- `/home/sympa/nls`
  Internationalization directory. It contains XPG4-compatible message catalogues. Sympa has currently been translated into 14 different languages.

- `/home/sympa/spool`
  Sympa uses 7 different spools (see 2.4, page ).

- `/home/sympa/src/`
  Sympa sources.

#
2.2 Binaries

- `sympa.pl`
  The main daemon ; it processes commands and delivers messages. Continuously scans the `msg/` spool.

- `sympa_wizard.pl`
  A wizard to edit `sympa.conf` and `wwsympa.conf`. Maybe it is a good idea to run it at the beginning, but thoses file can also be edited with your favorite text editor.

- `wwsympa.fcgi`
  The CGI program offering a complete web interface to mailing lists. It can work in both classical CGI and FastCGI modes, although we recommend FastCGI mode, being up to 10 times faster.

- `bounced.pl`
  This daemon processes bounces (non-delivered messages), looking for bad addresses. List owners will later access bounce information via WWSympa. Continuously scans the `bounce/` spool.

- `archived.pl`
  This daemon feeds the web archives, converting messages to HTML format and linking them. It uses the amazing `MhOnArc`. Continuously scans the `outgoing/` spool.

- `task_manager.pl`
  The daemon which manages the tasks : creation, checking, execution. It regularly scans the `task/` spool.

- `sympa_soap_server.fcgi`
  The server will process SOAP (web services) request. This server requires FastCGI ; it should be referenced from within your HTTPS config.

- `queue`
  This small program gets the incoming messages from the aliases and stores them in `msg/` spool.

- `bouncequeue`
  Same as `queue` for bounces. Stores bounces in `bounce/` spool.

# 2.3 Configuration files

- `/etc/sympa.conf`
  The main configuration file. See 5, page .

- `/etc/wwsympa.conf`
  WWSympa configuration file. See 1.2, page .

- `edit_list.conf`
  Defines which parameters/files are editable by owners. See 14.2, page .

- `topics.conf`
  Contains the declarations of your site's topics (classification in WWSympa), along with their titles. A sample is provided in the `sample/` directory of the sympa distribution. See 12.7, page .

- `auth.conf`
  Defines authentication backend organisation ( LDAP-based authentication, CAS-based authentication and sympa internal )

- `robot.conf`
  It is a subset of `sympa.conf` defining a Virtual robot (one per Virtual robot).

#
2.4 Spools

See 5.6, page for spool definition in `sympa.conf`.

- `/home/sympa/spool/auth/`
  For storing messages until they have been confirmed.

- `/home/sympa/spool/bounce/`
  For storing incoming bouncing messages.

- `/home/sympa/spool/digest/`
  For storing lists' digests before they are sent.

- `/home/sympa/spool/expire/`
  Used by the expire process.

- `/home/sympa/spool/mod/`
  For storing unmoderated messages.

- `/home/sympa/spool/msg/`
  For storing incoming messages (including commands).

- `/home/sympa/spool/msg/bad/`
  Sympa stores rejected messages in this directory

- `/home/sympa/spool/task/`
  For storing all created tasks.

- `/home/sympa/spool/outgoing/`
  `sympa.pl` dumps messages in this spool to await archiving by `archived.pl`.

Next: 3. Installing Sympa Up: Sympa Mailing Lists Management Software version Previous: 1. Presentation Contents Index