---
name: "sympa"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "sympa"
version: "6.1.23~dfsg-2+deb8u1"
release: "Debian 8 (Jessie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/sympa/8"
---

# sympa(8)

A Modern Mailing List Manager

## NAME

sympa, sympa.pl - A Modern Mailing List Manager

## SYNOPSIS

**sympa.pl** \[ **-d, --debug** \] \[ **-f, --file**=*another.sympa.conf* \]\
       \[ **-k, --keepcopy**=*directory* \]\
       \[ **-l, --lang**=*catalog* \] \[ **-m, --mail** \]\
       \[ **-h, --help** \] \[ **-v, --version** \]

      \[ **--import**=*listname* \] \[ **--close\_list**=*list\[@robot\]*\]\[ **--purge\_list**=*list\[@robot\]*\]\
       \[ **--lowercase** \] \[ **--make\_alias\_file** \]\
       \[ **--dump**=*listname* \| ALL\]

## DESCRIPTION

**Sympa** is scalable and highly customizable mailing list manager.  It can cope with big lists (200,000 subscribers) and comes with  a complete (user and admin) Web interface. It is  internationalized, and supports the us, fr, de, es, it, fi, and  chinese locales. A scripting language allows you to extend the  behavior of commands. **Sympa** can be linked to an LDAP directory  or an RDBMS to create dynamic mailing lists. **Sympa** provides S/MIME  and HTTPS based authentication and encryption. Sympa is a modern mailing-list manager. It supports a lot of useful features.

## OPTIONS

- **-d, --debug**

  Enable debug mode.

- **-f, --file=***another.sympa.conf*

  Force Sympa to use an alternative configuration file instead of */etc/sympa/sympa.conf*.

- **-k, --keepcopy=***directory*

  This option tells Sympa to keep a copy of every incoming message,  instead of deleting them. \`directory' is the directory to  store messages.

- **-l, --lang=***catalog*

  Set this option to use a language catalog for Sympa. The corresponding catalog file \`catalogue'.mo must be located in */usr/lib/sympa/locale* directory.

- **-m, --mail**

  Sympa will log calls to sendmail, including recipients. This option is useful for keeping track of each mail sent (log files may grow faster though).

- **-h, --help**

  Print this help message.

- **-v, --version**

  Print the version number.

  With the following options *sympa.pl* will run in batch mode :

- **--import=***list*

  Import subscribers in the list. Data are read from STDIN. The imported data should contain one entry per line : the first field is an email address, the second (optional) field is the free form name. Fields are spaces-separated.

  Sample :

  ```
      ## Data to be imported
      ## email        gecos
      john.steward@some.company.com           John - accountant
      mary.blacksmith@another.company.com     Mary - secretary
  ```

- **--close\_list**=*list\[@robot\]*

  Close the list (changing its status to closed), remove aliases and remove subscribers from DB (a dump is created in the list directory to allow restoring the list)

- **--purge\_list**=*list\[@robot\]*

  Remove the list (remove archive, configuration files, users and owners in admin table. Restore is not possible after this operation.

- **--lowercase**

  Lowercases email addresses in database.

- **--make\_alias\_file**

  Create an aliases file in /tmp/ with all list aliases. It uses the list\_aliases.tpl template.

- **--dump=***listname* \| ALL

  Dumps subscribers of for \`listname' list or all lists. Subscribers are  dumped in subscribers.db.dump.

## FILES

*/etc/sympa/sympa.conf* main configuration file.

*/run/sympa/sympa.pid* this file contains the process ID of *sympa.pl*.

## AVAILABILITY

Latest version of **Sympa** is available from \<http://www.sympa.org/\>.

## MORE DOCUMENTATION

The full documentation in HTML and PDF formats can be found in \<http://www.sympa.org/manual/\>.

The mailing lists (with web archives) can be accessed at \<http://listes.renater.fr/sympa/lists/informatique/sympa\>.

## AUTHORS

- Serge Aumont

  Comite Reseau des Universites

- Olivier Salauen

  Comite Reseau des Universites

Contact authors at \<sympa-authors@listes.renater.fr\>

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright X 1997,1998,1999,2000,2001 Comite Reseau des Universites

Copyright X 1997,1998,1999 Institut Pasteur & Christophe Wolfhugel

You may distribute this software under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 2 (\<http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html\>)

## BUGS

Report bugs to Sympa bug tracker. See \<http://www.sympa.org/tracking\>.

## SEE ALSO

[*sympa.conf*(5)](/sympa.conf/5.md), [*archived*(8)](/archived/8.md), [*bounced*(8)](/bounced/8.md), [*sendmail*(8)](/sendmail/8.md), [*alias\_manager*(8)](/alias_manager/8.md)