https://github.com/openwall/blists

Web interface to mailing list archives
https://github.com/openwall/blists

archive cgi lists mail web

Last synced: 20 days ago
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Web interface to mailing list archives

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/openwall/blists
• Owner: openwall
• License: other
• Created: 2014-09-16T10:04:50.000Z (over 11 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2026-02-22T07:16:12.000Z (about 1 month ago)
• Last Synced: 2026-02-22T13:34:38.663Z (about 1 month ago)
• Topics: archive, cgi, lists, mail, web
• Language: C
• Homepage: https://www.openwall.com/blists/
• Size: 1.02 MB
• Stars: 14
• Watchers: 3
• Forks: 4
• Open Issues: 4
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README
  • License: LICENSE

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

          
blists is a web-based interface to mailing list archives that works off

indexed mbox files.  There are two programs: bindex and bit.  bindex

generates or updates the index file (yes, incremental updates are

supported).  bit is a CGI program, which generates web pages on the fly.

  blists homepage: https://www.openwall.com/blists/

  Live example with a high volume mailing list:

      https://lists.openwall.net/linux-kernel/

To compile, simply run "make".  There's currently no "install" target;

you're supposed to copy the bindex and bit programs in place on your

own, as appropriate for your setup.  Also you may need to setup for your

httpd: cgi, SSI (shtml), and mod_rewrite.

You will likely want to have bindex run after new messages arrive.  For

example, you may invoke it from a .procmailrc file like this:

    :0

    * ^TOlistname

    {

      :0 c

      Mail/listname

      

      :0

      | /usr/bin/bindex Mail/listname

    }

This delivers new messages to an mbox file called "listname" and it

immediately triggers update of the index file for it.  You can also

accomplish this from .forward and .qmail files.  Alternatively, you may

choose to run bindex on cron.

The index file name is produced by adding the .idx suffix to the mbox

filename, so in this example it will be "listname.idx" in the same

directory.  With the default params.h settings, the index file size is

typically 100 KB plus around 3.5% of the mbox file's size.

bit is meant to be invoked via SSI (it will refuse to work otherwise),

and it has only been tested with Apache so far.  Here's an example

SSI-enabled HTML file (usually with extension .shtml):

    

    

    

    

    

    .cal_brief { text-align: center; }

    .cal_brief td:first-child { background: inherit; }

    .cal_brief td { background: #ccc; width: 5ex; padding: 2px; }

    .cal_big { text-align: center; padding: 0; margin: 0; }

    .cal_big td { padding: 0 2px; }

    .cal_mon { text-align: center; }

    .cal_mon th { font-size: small; padding: 0; margin: 0; }

    .cal_mon td { background: #ccc; width: 5ex; height: 1.5em;

                padding: 2px; text-align: right; }

    .cal_mon td[colspan] { background: inherit; }

    .cal_mon sup { color: #F0F0F0; text-align: left; float: left;

                margin-top: -2pt; font-weight: bold; }

    .cal_mon a { text-align: right; margin-left: -4em; float: right; }

    

    

    

    

    

    

bit output it in UTF-8, so you will need to configure charset, for

Apache add this (for example to to .htaccess in the directory

where bit.shtml is):

    AddCharset UTF-8 .shtml

Obviously, you'll also need to adjust the /cgi-bin/bit paths, and you

might need to add a filename suffix to match your web server

configuration (for example it could be bit.cgi).

You may need to configure MAIL_SPOOL_PATH definition in params.h to

tell bit where mboxes are located, otherwise bit will assume they

are in ../../blists/ relative to cgi-bin directory (where bit is).

In order for the links generated by bit to point to valid URLs, as well

as for the URLs to look pretty, you may use mod_rewrite rules like

this:

    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteRule ^((listname1|listname2)/([0-9]{4}/([0-9]{2}/([0-9]{2}/([1-9][0-9]*)?)?)?)?)$ list.shtml?$1 [L]

    RewriteRule ^((listname1|listname2)/[0-9]{4}/[0-9]{2}/[0-9]{2}/[1-9][0-9]*/[1-9][0-9]*)$ /cgi-bin/bit?attachment+$1 [L]

Direct call to bit is required to set HTTP headers for attachments.

To workaround a bug in Lynx where it would omit the trailing slash when

following links to "..", add:

    RewriteRule ^[a-z-]+([/0-9]*[0-9])?$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI}/ [R,L]

(where "[a-z-]+" is supposed to match your list names; adjust it if

not).

To have separate HTML wrapper pages for different lists (such as to

include different additional info on those pages), use:

    RewriteRule ^(listname1|listname2)/(([0-9]{4}/([0-9]{2}/([0-9]{2}/([1-9][0-9]*)?)?)?)?)$ list-$1.shtml?$1/$2 [L]

To make use of the censorship feature (to hide spam messages), create a

separate HTML wrapper page with:

    

    ...

    

then refer to it in more specific RewriteRule directives, which you need

to place above the catch-all ones:

    RewriteRule ^(listname1/2011/01/02/3)$ list-censor.shtml?$1 [L]

You may match multiple messages at once with trickier regexps:

    RewriteRule ^(listname1/2011/01/(09/1|12/1|12/2))$ list-censor.shtml?$1 [L]

Good luck!