ARCHIVED: What is Majordomo?

This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable.

Majordomo is a program for managing email distribution lists. It allows one or more individuals to use a single distribution list from multiple computing systems. It also allows the owner of a list to set approvals for subscription requests and postings.

You may send administrative commands (e.g., to subscribe to a list, create a list, get information about a list, or change how a list behaves) to your Majordomo list's administrative address. For more information about Majordomo commands, see the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: What are some of the basic commands for Majordomo?

Note: You should never send commands to the address of the Majordomo mailing list (e.g., to listname@host.domain, where listname is the name of the list, and host.domain is the name of the computer where the list resides); only messages intended for members of the list should be sent to the list's address. Rather, send commands to the administrative address of your Majordomo list (e.g., to majordomo@host.domain). Additionally, send all commands in the body of the message; commands in the "Subject:" line of messages are ignored.

UITS has retired the Majordomo list server at Indiana University Bloomington. If you were the primary owner of an IUB Majordomo list, you can no longer use it to send mail. If you'd like to create a new mailing list, anyone with an IU Network ID username and passphrase can request a LISTSERV list. For instructions, see ARCHIVED: At IU, how do I request a new LISTSERV list? Also, for a collection of documents with general LISTSERV information, and information about owning and subscribing to LISTSERV lists at IU, see the Knowledge Base menu ARCHIVED: LISTSERV, distribution lists, and mass mailing.

For more information about Majordomo, see the Knowledge Base document ARCHIVED: Where can I get help for Majordomo?