UBC Mathematics: MathNet FAQ [Manage Mailing List]



Question: How do I manage the mailing list?
Author: Joseph Tam
Date: Sept. 9, 2025

A Majordomo mailing list can be managed using commmands mailed to an address processed by the mailing list software. It is assumed the IT staff has provisioned a mailing list for your use, and you have received the necessary information to manage your mailing list, as documented here

How do I set up a mailing list?

You ought to have two key pieces of information:

  1. Mailing list name: in this page, it is assumed to be mlist. Substitute this value with the name of your particular mailing list. The mailing list submission address is
    mlist@math.ubc.ca
  2. Password: for administrative functions, you will need to supply this password. In this document, the password is xxxyyy -- substitute this with the password given to you.

To manage your mailing list, enter commands in the body of a message (the Subject: header is ignored) and send them to

	mjrdomo@math.ubc.ca

Caveat: Majordomo is ancient software, and does not handle modern flowed text well (i.e. formatted with line-continuation characters). It only works with plain text messages -- if you receive errors, use a mail reader that format text as plain text (i.e. does not embded special characters).

Here are the most common commands (literal commands will be in this typeface and subsituted values will be in this typeface:

  • Add an Email address to the mailing list:
    approve xxxyyy subscribe mlist mickey@disney.com
    approve xxxyyy subscribe mlist Minnie Mouse <minnie@disney.com>
    end
  • Delete an Email address from the mailing list:
    approve xxxyyy unsubscribe mlist mickey@disney.com
    end
  • Get the membership of a mailing list:
    approve xxxyyy who mlist
    end
  • Change mailing list password:
    passwd mlist xxxyyy newpass
    end
  • Get more information Majordomo use:
    help
    end

Multiple commands can be issued in a single message (e.g. subscribing many members). The end command is used to prevent automatically append signatures from being interpreted, causing errors.

The mailing list owner receives notifications by Email when

  • Mailing list is reconfigured.
  • Confirming subscription/unsubscription requests (if the list does not have an open subscription policy).
  • A message needs approval (if the list is moderated).
  • A message is rejected from an unknown address (if list has members-only submission policy).
  • Message is rejected due to size (if their is a maximum size policy).
  • Recipient bounce message: if Email could not be delivered.