Administrivia

The administrivia rule matches when the message contains some common email commands in the Subject: header or first few lines of the payload. This is used to catch messages posted to the list which should have been sent to the -request robot address.

>>> from mailman.app.lifecycle import create_list
>>> mlist = create_list('_xtest@example.com')
>>> mlist.administrivia = True
>>> from mailman.config import config
>>> rule = config.rules['administrivia']
>>> print(rule.name)
administrivia

For example, if the Subject: header contains the word unsubscribe, the rule matches.

>>> from mailman.testing.helpers import (specialized_message_from_string
...   as message_from_string)
>>> msg_1 = message_from_string("""\
... From: aperson@example.com
... Subject: unsubscribe
...
... """)
>>> rule.check(mlist, msg_1, {})
True

Similarly, if the body of the message contains the word subscribe in the first few lines of text, the rule matches.

>>> msg_2 = message_from_string("""\
... From: aperson@example.com
... Subject: I wish to join your list
...
... subscribe
... """)
>>> rule.check(mlist, msg_2, {})
True

In both cases, administrivia checking can be disabled.

>>> mlist.administrivia = False
>>> rule.check(mlist, msg_1, {})
False
>>> rule.check(mlist, msg_2, {})
False

To make the administrivia heuristics a little more robust, the rule actually looks for a minimum and maximum number of arguments, so that it really does seem like a mis-addressed email command. In this case, the confirm command requires at least one argument. We don’t give that here so the rule will not match.

>>> mlist.administrivia = True
>>> msg = message_from_string("""\
... From: aperson@example.com
... Subject: confirm
...
... """)
>>> rule.check(mlist, msg, {})
False

But a real confirm message will match.

>>> msg = message_from_string("""\
... From: aperson@example.com
... Subject: confirm 12345
...
... """)
>>> rule.check(mlist, msg, {})
True

We don’t show all the other possible email commands, but you get the idea.

Non-administrivia

Of course, messages that don’t contain administrivia, don’t match the rule.

>>> msg = message_from_string("""\
... From: aperson@example.com
... Subject: examine
...
... persuade
... """)
>>> rule.check(mlist, msg, {})
False

Also, only text/plain parts are checked for administrivia, so any email commands in other content type subparts are ignored.

>>> msg = message_from_string("""\
... From: aperson@example.com
... Subject: some administrivia
... Content-Type: text/x-special
...
... subscribe
... """)
>>> rule.check(mlist, msg, {})
False