NAME

       Sympa::Aliases - Base class for alias management

SYNOPSIS

         package Sympa::Aliases::FOO;

         use base qw(Sympa::Aliases);

         sub check { ... }
         sub add { ... }
         sub del { ... }

         1;

DESCRIPTION

       This module is the base class for subclasses to manage list aliases of Sympa.

   Methods
       new ( $type, [ key => value, ... ] )
           Constructor.  Creates new instance of Sympa::Aliases.

           Returns one of appropriate subclasses according to $type:

           'none'
               No aliases management.

           Full path to executable
               Use external program to manage aliases.  See Sympa::Aliases::External.

           Name of subclass
               Use a subclass "Sympa::Aliases::name" to manage aliases.

           For invalid types returns "undef".

           Note: For compatibility to the earlier versions of Sympa, if a string
           "SBINDIR/alias_manager.pl" was given as $type, Sympa::Aliases::Template subclass will
           be used.

           Optional "key => value" pairs are included in the instance as hash entries.

       check ($listname, $robot_id)
           Instance method, overridable.  Checks if the addresses of requested list exist
           already.

           Parameters:

           $listname
               Name of the list.  Mandatory.

           $robot_id
               List's robot.

           Returns:

           True value if one of addresses exists.  0 if none found.  "undef" if something wrong
           happened.

           By default, this method always returns 0.

       add ($list)
           Instance method, overridable.  Installs aliases for the list $list.

           Parameters:

           $list
               An instance of Sympa::List.

           Returns:

           1 if installation succeeded.  0 if there were no aliases to be installed.  "undef" if
           not applicable.

           By default, this method always returns 0.

       del ($list)
           Instance method, overridable.  Removes aliases for the list $list.

           Parameters:

           $list
               An instance of Sympa::List.

           Returns:

           1 if removal succeeded.  0 if there were no aliases to be removed.  "undef" if not
           applicable.

           By default, this method always returns 0.

   Function
       check_new_listname ( $listname, $robot )
           Function.  Checks if a new listname is allowed.

           TBD.

           Parameteres:

           $listname
               A list name to be checked.

           $robot
               Robot context.

           Returns:

           If check fails, an array including information of errors.  If it succeeds, empty
           array.

           Note: This should be used to check name of list to be created.  Names of existing
           lists may not necessarily pass checks by this function.

           This function was added on Sympa 6.2.37b.2.

SEE ALSO

       Sympa::Aliases::CheckSMTP, Sympa::Aliases::External, Sympa::Aliases::Template.

HISTORY

       alias_manager.pl as a program to automate alias management appeared on Sympa 3.1b.13.

       Sympa::Aliases module as an OO-based class appeared on Sympa 6.2.23b, and it obsoleted
       alias_manager.pl.