Home

Awesome

Ansible Role: Sympa

Role to install Sympa. It doesn't support robots for now, this feature will be added later.

Supported platforms are:

Requirements

Local MTA. This is installed by most distributions.

Nginx needs to be installed before running the Sympa role, as the Nginx user is referred by the wwsympa service unit.

Integration

Exim

This role doesn't cover the installation of Exim. However, it is recommended to disable the newaliases wrapper:

sympa_config_aliases_program: none

Nginx

The Sympa role provides a snippet for Nginx in the variable sympa_web_nginx_snippet which can be included in a virtual host configuration file.

The FCGI settings can be adjusted with the variables sympa_web_nginx_read_timeout and sympa_web_nginx_fcgi_options.

With a lots of lists and a fresh WWSympa instance it takes a while to generate the list overview:

# raise FCGI timeout to 3 minutes
sympa_web_nginx_read_timeout: 180

Custom scenari

Custom scenari can be installed from files listed in the sympa_scenari variable:

sympa_scenari:
  - scenari/visibility.identified

Included in the role are the following scenari:

Privileges for editing list configuration

The privileges are listed in the configuration file /etc/sympa/edit_list.conf.

You can override or add privileges through the variable sympa_edit_list_privileges:

sympa_edit_list_privileges:
  - name: process_archive
    roles:
      - owner
      - privileged_owner
    privilege: hidden

That prevents owners to enable or disable archiving for a list.

The roles can also given as comma-separated list, e.g owner,privileged_owner.

Inclusion of data sources

ODBC

In order to the necessary ODBC DBI driver, set the sympa_install_odbc_driver variable to "yes".

Variables

sympa_default_config_ttl

Default time interval between two scheduled synchronizations.

sympa_default_config_distribution_ttl

Default time interval to trigger a synchronization by an action, e.g. distributing an email.

Variables

The database configuration for Sympa is required.

Example:

sympa_database:
  type: mysql
  name: sympa
  user: sympa
  password: nevairbe

Listmaster

sympa_listmaster

This is either a list of listmasters or a single value for the listmaster.

If no value is provided, listmaster will be joined with a @ to the sympa_domain variable.

For example: listmaster@lists.example.com.

Installation

You can pick from different installation methods through the sympa_installation_method variable:

- *source*: install from tarball
- *package*: install from distribution package
- *repository*: install from Git repository
- *sync*: install from directory on the controller
- *none*: skip installation (only for special cases)

Default is source.

sympa_source_directory

Directory for the Sympa sources. The tarball will be also downloaded to this directory if source installation method is used.

sympa_installation_directory

Installation directory. Defaults to /usr/local/sympa.

Build options

This applies to all installation methods except package:

sympa_build_options: setuid_fcgi: false setuid_queue: false

setuid_fcgi and setuid_queue determine whether the setuid flag is applied to the FCGI wrapper and the queue program, respectively.

There is no reason to apply these setuid flags, especially as setuid binaries are a security risk.

Source installation method

sympa_source_version

Sympa version, defaults to 6.2.72.

sympa_source_url

Sympa download location. The default value includes sympa_source_version, e.g. https://github.com/sympa-community/sympa/releases/download/6.2.70/sympa-6.2.72.tar.gz.

sympa_source_patches

List of patches which will be applied before building, e.g.:

sympa_source_patches:
  - patches/soap-api-access-fix.diff
  - patches/disable-setuid-1032.diff

Repository installation method

sympa_repository_url

Git repository, defaults to https://github.com/sympa-community/sympa.git.

sympa_repository_version

Git branch or tag, defaults to main.

Sync installation method

sympa_sync_directory

Directory on the Ansible controller with the Sympa sources.

Aliases

sympa_config_sendmail_aliases

Location of the global file with the list aliases. Defaults to /etc/mail/sympa/aliases.

sympa_config_aliases_program

Program to update the hash file for the aliases. Select postalias for using Sympa with Postfix MTA.

Database

Additional fields

Additional fields for the subscriber and user tables can be configured with the sympa_config_additional_subscriber_fields and sympa_config_additional_user_fields variables.

sympa_config_additional_subscriber_fields: unsubscribe_link

You have to create these fields separately, e.g.:

- name: Add unsubscribe_link field to subscriber table
  postgresql_query:
    db: sympa
    query: 'ALTER TABLE subscriber_table ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS
        unsubscribe_link text'
  become: yes
  become_user: postgres
  vars:
    ansible_ssh_pipelining: true

Incoming messages

sympa_config_max_size

Maximum size of an incoming message in bytes.

Sympa's default is 5242880 (5 MB).

Privileges

sympa_config_create_list

Determines how can request or create a list. Default value is public_listmaster.

Change this to listmaster in order to prevent users to request a list:

sympa_config_create_list: listmaster

Accounts

allow_account_deletion

Whether to allow the user to delete its own account from the web interface. Default value is false.

sympa_allow_account_deletion: true

Languages

sympa_config_lang

Configures the default language:

sympa_config_lang: de

sympa_config_supported_lang

Configures the supported languages:

sympa_config_supported_lang: de,en_US

You can also use a list instead of a comma separated string.

Personalization

You can enable personalization for all lists with:

sympa_config_merge_feature: true

This is not recommended though unless all lists use that feature. You can enable it for individual lists in the list configuration.

WWSympa

sympa_web_domain

Set this variable if you use a different domain for the web interface than sympa_domain.

sympa_web_path

Path component of URL for the web interface without slash. Default is sympa.

sympa_web_fcgi_enabled

Whether WWSympa is enabled (default).

*sympa_web_fcgi_protocol

Protocol for WWSympa URL. Defaults to https.

sympa_web_fcgi_instances

Number of FCGI instances (default: 5)

Recommended value for development instances is 2.

sympa_config_title

Title for the web interface.

SOAP

sympa_soap_fcgi_enabled

Whether SOAP is enabled (disabled by default).

sympa_soap_fcgi_protocol

Protocol for SOAP URL. Defaults to https.

sympa_soap_fcgi_instances

Number of FCGI instances (default: 2)

Dependencies

None.

Example Playbook

- hosts: server
  roles:
    - { role: racke.sympa }

License

GPL2

Author Information

This role was created in 2020 by Stefan Hornburg (Racke).