setmaillist(1)

📦 version 0.51, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ setmaillist(1) ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because this is setmaillist from the General Commands Manual and she is lowkey iconic 💅

🎀 NAME 🎀

setmaillist — create a binary mailing list. that's it, that's the whole job, and she does it flawlessly ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

setmaillist bin tmp

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so here's the vibe: setmaillist reads a mailing list from its standard input. standard input, bestie. she's listening 👂

then she writes that mailing list in a binary format to tmp, and after that she moves tmp to bin. and no cap, tmp and bin must be on the same filesystem — that's non-negotiable, the move depends on it 🫶

if there's a problem creating tmp, setmaillist complains and leaves bin alone. she's dramatic but she's not gonna mess up your existing file, periodt 🙈

the binary mailing list format is portable across machines — so it travels, it's giving main character energy on every host 🌈

and one more thing: setmaillist always creates bin world-readable. always. everybody can read it. that's the whole point 💫

🌸 MAILING LIST FORMAT 🌸

the mailing list that setmaillist reads is a series of lines. and listen — NUL bytes are not allowed. not even one. don't try it 💀

here's how she reads each line, okay? pay attention, this is the important part:

  • if a line begins with a dot or a slash, setmaillist takes the entire line as an include file name 📁
  • if a line begins with an ampersand, setmaillist takes the rest of the line as a recipient address 💌
  • if a line begins with a letter or a number, setmaillist takes the entire line as a recipient address 💌

and every single recipient address must include a fully qualified domain name. no shortcuts. and recipient addresses longer than 800 bytes are not allowed — 800 is the limit, bestie, she said what she said ⭐

she also ignores blank lines and lines beginning with # 🙈 and she ignores spaces and tabs at the ends of lines — trailing whitespace, who even are you 🎀

for example, this:

god@heaven.af.mil
djb@silverton.berkeley.edu

is a mailing list with two addresses. cute right? two little addresses, living their best life 🦋

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

go read those too, iykyk 👑

💜 a little sign-off from me to you: this whole page lives in the General Commands Manual and its manual name is setmaillist(1) — that's the source, that's the version, that's the whole footer vibe. slay, ate, no crumbs. 🎀✨
📦 where this page comes from