Sympa::Aliases::External(3Sympa)

💖 Sympa::Aliases::External(3Sympa) 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about Sympa::Aliases::External — the alias management module that outsources the whole "updating aliases" job to an external program. yes, like delegation, but make it Unix. 🎀

It ships with sympa 6.2.80 and honestly? it's giving "I don't do the work, I know a girl who does." 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

Sympa::Aliases::External — alias management, aka: updating aliases by an external program. slay. 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

use Sympa::Aliases;

my $aliases = Sympa::Aliases->new('/path/to/program',
    [ file => 'file' ] );
# or,
my $aliases = Sympa::Aliases->new('External',
    program => '/path/to/program', [ file => 'file' ] );

$aliases->check('listname', 'domain');
$aliases->add($list);
$aliases->del($list);

look at her. two totally valid ways to summon her (constructor with just the program path, or the explicit 'External' plus a program key), and then three little method calls doing all the heavy lifting. main character energy, no notes. ✨

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

Sympa::Aliases::External manages list aliases using an external program. that's it, that's the vibe. you bring the program, she brings the delegation. 🤝

🧚 Methods 🧚

• check ( $listname, $domain ) — ngl the details live elsewhere: see Sympa::Aliases::CheckSMTP. she's just pointing you to the right girl. 💁
• add ( $list ) and del ( $list ) — these two invoke the program with these command line arguments:

/path/to/program add | del listname domain [ file ]

so like, add or del (pick one, queen), then listname, then domain, then optionally file. ✨

and here's the receipts-check: if processing succeeds, the program should exit with status 0. otherwise it may exit with a non-zero status — and yep, there's a whole list of those below (see also "Constants"). no cap. 🔥

🎀 Constants 🎀

Exit status

these are the exit statuses, bestie. memorize them or at least bookmark them, iykyk. 💖

• ERR_CONFIG — configuration file has errors. 😭
• ERR_PARAMETER — incorrect call to program. the program got called wrong, rip.
• ERR_WRITE_ALIAS — unable to append to alias.
• ERR_NEWALIASES — unable to run newaliases command.
• ERR_READ_ALIAS — unable to read existing aliases.
• ERR_CREATE_TEMP — could not create temporary file.
• ERR_ALIAS_EXISTS — some of the list aliases already exist. (awkward.) 🙈
• ERR_LOCK — can not lock resource.
• ERR_ALIASES_EMPTY — the parser returned empty aliases. 💀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Sympa::Aliases, Sympa::Aliases::CheckSMTP.

go read those too, bestie, they're the supporting cast and they ate. 👑

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⭐ HISTORY ⭐

the Sympa::Aliases::External module appeared on Sympa 6.2.23b. she's been iconic since day one, periodt. 💅

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and that's the whole page!! thanks for coming to my ted talk, ily 🫶

version 6.2.80 ✨ dated 2026-10-19 — Sympa::Aliases::External(3Sympa), mwah, bye bestie! 💖🎀🦋