db.debian.org: documenting del
Hi all.
We just wondered how to properly delete a vacation status using the
db.d.o mail gateway. There were several "solutions" presented, none
of them worked. So we finally decided to take a look at the source
and found out that the right command is 'del onvacation' :) I've never
heard of this so lets document it ;)
Proposed patch (includes some typo fixes):
Index: doc-mail.wml
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/webwml/db.debian.org/doc-mail.wml,v
retrieving revision 1.6
diff -u -r1.6 doc-mail.wml
--- doc-mail.wml 25 Dec 2004 11:33:46 -0000 1.6
+++ doc-mail.wml 10 Jan 2005 03:17:54 -0000
@@ -9,14 +9,14 @@
once.
<p>
-There are three functions logically split into 3 seperate email addresses
+There are three functions logically split into 3 separate email addresses
that are implemented by the gateway: <b>ping</b>, <b>new password</b> and
<b>changes</b>. The function to act on is the first argument to the program.
<p>
Error handling is currently done by generating a bounce message and passing
descriptive error text to the mailer. This can generate a somewhat hard to
-read error message, but it does have all the relevent information.
+read error message, but it does have all the relevant information.
<h1>Ping</h1>
The ping command simply returns the users public record. It is useful for
@@ -28,16 +28,16 @@
If a user looses their password they can request that a new one be generated
for them. This is done by sending the phrase "Please change my Debian
password" to chpasswd@db.debian.org. The phrase is required to prevent the
-daemon from triggering on arbitary signed email. The best way to invoke this
+daemon from triggering on arbitrary signed email. The best way to invoke this
feature is with
<pre>echo "Please change my Debian password" | gpg --clearsign | mail chpasswd@db.debian.org</pre>
After validating the request the daemon will generate a new random password,
-set it in the directory and respond with an encrpyted message containing the
+set it in the directory and respond with an encrypted message containing the
new password. The password can be changed using one of the other interface
methods.
<h1>Changes</h1>
-An address (changes@db.debian.org) is provided for making almost arbitary
+An address (changes@db.debian.org) is provided for making almost arbitrary
changes to the contents of the record. The daemon parses its input line by
line and acts on each line in a command oriented manner. Anything, except for
passwords, can be changed using this mechanism. Note however that because
@@ -48,12 +48,22 @@
<ul>
<li>A line of the form <tt>'field: value'</tt> will change the contents of
the field to value. Some simple checks are performed on value to make sure
-that it is not set to nonsense. The values that can be changed are:
+that it is not set to nonsense. You can't set an empty string as
+value, use <tt>del</tt> instead (see below). The values that can
+be changed are:
<b>c</b>, <b>l</b>, <b>facsimiletelephonenumber</b>, <b>telephonenumber</b>,
<b>postaladdress</b>, <b>postalcode</b>,
<b>loginshell</b>, <b>emailforward</b>, <b>ircnick</b>, <b>onvacation</b>,
and <b>labledurl</b>
+<li>A line of the form <tt>'del field'</tt> will completly remove all
+occurrences of a field. Useful e.g. to unset your vacation status.
+The fields that can be deleted are:
+<b>c</b>, <b>l</b>, <b>facsimiletelephonenumber</b>, <b>telephonenumber</b>,
+<b>postaladdress</b>, <b>postalcode</b>, <b>emailforward</b>, <b>ircnick</b>,
+<b>onvacation</b>, <b>labeleduri</b>, <b>latitude</b>, <b>longitude</b>,
+<b>icquin</b>, <b>sshrsaauthkey</b>, and <b>sshdsaauthkey</b>
+
<li>The daemon has a special parser to help changing latitude and longitude
values. It accepts several common formats for position information and
converts them to one of the standard forms. The permitted types are
@@ -98,12 +108,12 @@
<h2>Notes</h2>
<p>
In this document PGP refers to any message or key that GnuPG is
-able to generate or parse, specificaly it includes both PGP2.x and OpenPGP
+able to generate or parse, specifically it includes both PGP2.x and OpenPGP
(aka GnuPG) keys.
<p>
Due to the replay cache the clock on the computer that generates the
signatures has to be accurate to at least one day. If it is off by several
-months or more then the deamon will outright reject all messages.
+months or more then the daemon will outright reject all messages.
<p>
Examples are given using GnuPG, but PGP 2.x can also be used. The correct
options to generate a clear signed ascii armored message in 'filter' mode
Gruesse,
--
Frank Lichtenheld <djpig@debian.org>
www: http://www.djpig.de/
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