Listfix is an email list manager for the postfix email server. It is designed with minimal features to be quick to set up, easy to integrate with postfix, and simple to create and administer lists.
Listfix allows you to create and manage multiple email lists through a simple command line interface (CLI). Integration with the postfix email server is generally only a matter of a couple easy configuration changes (this assumes you already have postfix installed and configured to send and receive email).
Once integrated, postfix will hand off emails to listfix if the recipient is an email list address that is configured in listfix. Listfix will then modify the headers (most importantly, the 'To' header), and resubmit an new email back to postfix for each recipient in the email list. Postfix will then deliver the new email to each recipient.
Listfix uses a json database which allows for simple viewing and direct manipulation via your preferred text editor. This json format also allows for easy plugin compatibility via custom written scripts or other software.
This project was built using python version 3.7. It has not been tested with lower versions. I suggest using at least python 3.7 to avoid any potential issues.
$ git clone git@github.com:bartobri/listfix.git
Basic Usage: listfix.py <command> [<arg_1>,<arg_2>,...]
After downloading the listfix git repo, cd to the listfix directory. Next use the following commands to create and manage your email list database.
We'll be using the example everyone@smith-family.com for our email list address.
Usage: listfix.py create <email_list_address> <email_list_name>
$ ./listfix.py create everyone@smith-family.com "Smith Family"
New list (everyone@smith-family.com) added.
$
Usage: listfix.py lists
$ ./listfix.py lists
everyone@smith-family.com (Smith Family)
$
Usage: listfix.py add <email_list_address> <recipient_address> <recipient_name>
$ ./listfix.py add everyone@smith-family.com mom@example.com "Sue Smith"
New recipient (mom@example.com) added to list (everyone@smith-family.com)
$ ./listfix.py add everyone@smith-family.com dad@example.com "Bob Smith"
New recipient (dad@example.com) added to list (everyone@smith-family.com)
$ ./listfix.py add everyone@smith-family.com me@example.com "Joe Smith"
New recipient (me@example.com) added to list (everyone@smith-family.com)
Usage: listfix.py dump <email_list_address>
$ ./listfix.py dump everyone@smith-family.com
mom@example.com (Sue Smith)
dad@example.com (Bob Smith)
me@example.com (Joe Smith)
$
Usage: listfix.py remove <email_list_address> <recipient_address>
$ ./listfix.py remove everyone@smith-family.com mom@example.com
Recipient (mom@example.com) removed from list (everyone@smith-family.com)
$
Usage: listfix.py destroy <email_list_address>
$ ./listfix.py destroy everyone@smith-family.com
Email list (everyone@smith-family.com) destroyed
$
These instructions assume you have the postfix email server set up on a unix or linux system and you have virtual domain settings enabled. Setting up and the postfix email server is not within scope for these instructions.
Confirm that the virtual_alias_maps configuration setting exists in the postfix main.cf config file. If it does not exist, you will have to add it. A common setting looks something like this:
virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual
Next add your email list(s) to the file (or resource) that is configured for virtual_alias_maps. If it is configured similarly to the above example, open this file and add a new line for each email list you want to manage via listfix. Each new line should consist of two parts separated by a space. The first part is the email address for the list. The domain name for this address should be one that you have previously configured postfix to receive email for. The second part is a unique id. You can make the unique id anything you want, but each list must have its own unique id and it must conform to system userid character requirements. It also can not match any userid on the system. See the below example:
everyone@smith-family.com list-smith-family
After you save the changes you will need to rebuild your virtual alias database and restart postfix:
$ sudo postmap /etc/postfix/virtual
$ sudo service postfix restart
Next you need to add an entry to the /etc/aliases file for each unique id you added to the postfix virtual_alias_maps file. Each entry should start with the unique id, followed by a colon and space, and then a command that pipes data to listfix. Be sure to use the listfix 'filter' command followed by the email address of the list that corresponds to the unique id. See the example below:
list-smith-family: "| /path/to/listfix.py filter everyone@smith-family.com"
After saving the changes you will need to rebuild the aliases database:
$ sudo newaliases
Now postfix will hand off emails to listfix when it receives an incoming email addressed to one of the email list addresses configured in postfix's virtual alias maps.
When postfix hands off an email to listfix, it simultaneously executes the listfix script. The userid that postfix uses when it executes listfix needs to have read/write access to the listfix log and database files. Until you grant this access, listfix will likely generate read/write errors and will not function as expected.
Change to the directory that listfix.py resides in. This is the same directory where listfix creates its database and log files. You should see one or both of these files.
If you have created an email list per the instructions above, you should see the file listfix.json, which is the database file. Change the permissions to 664 so that it is both owner and group writable. Next change the group to 'nogroup' which is the group for the postfix default user 'nobody' that it uses for handoffs. This will allow the user 'nobody' to write to this file.
$ chmod 664 listfix.json
$ sudo chown :nogroup listfix.json
If you made any errors while creating the database, you will also see the file listfix.log. If that file does not exist, create it and leave it empty. Next, make the same permission changes to this file so that the user 'nobody' can write to it.
$ chmod 664 listfix.log
$ sudo chown :nogroup listfix.log
Now you should be able to test listfix and confirm it is working as expected.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. See LICENSE for more details.