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Many of the problems I've seen with installations of Mojo Mail are actually not the fault of the installer, rather it's the web hosting company's setup of the server. To defend some hosting companies, Mojo Mail is designed to run on many different Operating Systems and server configurations, but having a configuration similar to the one Mojo Mail is developed on, will ultimately give you a more stable installation.
Although, there are some general recommendations. First, as with everything, you usually get what you paid for. A hosting company that offers extremely low fees with oodles of space and lots of bells and whistles, accomplishes this feat by having to have a large amount of clients on huge servers. Customer service and quality suffer.
Since I'm a community-oriented fellow, I like to choose a relatively small hosting company that I know. I've worked with my hosting company for five years and I'm nothing but thrilled. Their prices are a little higher, but their customer service is stellar. My customer service cries for help are always answered by one of the owners of the company. You cannot beat this.
The server setup I like is partly my opinion and others may argue a different way. It's also what I'm used to, but it doesn't hurt to ask what is available to you. The more, quality things available to you, the better off that you are.
ulimit
It should sputter back some interesting information on the resource limits on the account that you're logged onto. If it comes back with:
unlimited
You're in pretty good shape.
http://search.cpan.org/author/PMQS/DB_File-1.806/DB_File.pm
Basically, the DB_File gives me, the nerdy programmer, an interface to a simple database format, called the Berkeley DB, that I then use for Mojo Mail. There are many different, sort-of (I'll explain) compatible Perl Modules that give me the same looking interface, but to different DB packages, such as NDBM_File, ODBM_File and SDBM_File. Most of these packages are inferior to DB_File. Mojo Mail supports them because some hosting companies do not install the DB_File module.
This leads to all sorts of complications. Most of these other packages are slower than DB_File, and some of them don't support saving large amounts of data. As in large amounts, I mean anything over 4k. Most archives and some list settings go over this limit. When this happens, you will get an error in the program.
If you're curious on the features of the various DB Packages, check out the table located at:
http://search.cpan.org/author/JHI/perl-5.8.0/lib/AnyDBM_File.pm#DBM_Comparisons
Please don't confuse these DB packages with something like MySQL. Basically, the information they save is in a simpler format; using a key/value pair. Saving list settings in a MySQL database is a bit overkill and MySQL is offered less as a feature than DB_File.
Another plus about the DB_File is that you can FTP the files back and forth and they won't get corrupted! This is a great thing when moving servers.
If you already have an installation of Mojo Mail running, you can see if the files it's creating for your list settings and archives are Berkeley DB Files. One way is to log into your hosting account using an SSH or telnet client, getting into the directory where your list information is installed and using the ``file'' command. List settings are saved in files that begin with 'mj-', followed by the listshortname and perchance, a file ending. Usually, Berkeley DB Files have NO file ending, or, have a '.db' file ending. To be sure, use the 'file' command:
justin@nollie .lists> ls -la total 34 drwxr-xr-x 2 justin justin 512 Jan 4 18:42 ./ drwxr-xr-x 9 justin justin 512 Jan 1 20:45 ../ -rw-rw-rw- 1 justin justin 0 Jan 4 18:42 adrants.black_list -rw-rw-rw- 1 justin justin 0 Jan 4 18:42 adrants.list -rw-rw-rw- 1 justin justin 0 Jan 1 20:59 justin.black_list -rw-rw-rw- 1 justin justin 32768 Jan 5 22:24 mj-adrants justin@nollie .lists> file mj-adrants mj-adrants: Berkeley DB 1.85 (Hash, version 2, native byte-order) justin@nollie .lists>
That's exactly what I hoped to see. The file mj-adrants, the list setting file, is a Berkeley DB file.
If you're a web hosting company or have root privileges to your server, you can grab the Berkely DB here:
You only need version 1.85:
http://sleepycat.com/update/snapshot/db.1.85.tar.gz
The DB_File Perl Module can be grabbed here:
But, Qmail is probably better and more importantly for you, easier to work with if you want to fiddle around with discussion lists. The reason is that Qmail allows you to make mail aliases that point to programs, instead of other email addresses without having to fiddle around with something like a virtusertable - a Sendmail convention which you need root privileges to muck with.
If I see Qmail installed, I also think that the system administrators took the extra time and effort in creating a good hosting environment.
Qmail homepage: http://qmail.org
Here are the details:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/suexec.html
Any extension that comes with Mojo Mail, be it mojo_send.pl, mojo_backup.pl, mojo_digest.pl that isn't run as a CGI script will be easier to use and debug if the server has suExec functionality.
You can also use an SQL backend, such as MySQL or Postgres. At the moment, there isn't a huge advantage of using such a backend, unless your subscription lists are huge. When you do use a SQL backend, functions like subscribing and unsubscribing will become noticeably faster. Mailing list sending speed will not benefit either way.
Neither the MySQL and Postgres backends are recommended above the other, as they are relatively simple and very similar. Although, development is usually done to the Postgres module first and then ported to the MySQL module.
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The Mojo Mail Magic book is Copyright © 2003 Justin Simoni