• Start with the official installation docs using apt
• Then when that fails

• with install dbconfig-common to set up DB using mysql just doesn't work.
• it didn't work for mailman and it didn't work here
• it Says “password doesn't match requirements” (which isn't true).
• you have to set up the DB yourself

sudo mysql -p -e "CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS sympa CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci; CREATE USER IF NOT EXISTS 'sympa'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<RANDOM PASSWORD HERE>'; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON sympa.* TO 'sympa'@'localhost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"

sudo bash -c 'cat >> /etc/sympa/sympa/sympa.conf <<EOF
###\\\\ Database parameters ////###
db_type mysql
db_host localhost
db_user sympa
db_passwd <RANDOM PASSWORD HERE>
db_name sympa
EOF'

apparently standard setup is with Apache? But this works

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name <SUBDOMAIN NAME HERE>;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl; 
    server_name <SUBDOMAIN NAME HERE>;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/<SOMETHINGSOMETHING>/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/<SOMETHINGSOMETHING>//privkey.pem;

    root /usr/lib/cgi-bin/sympa;
    
    access_log /var/log/nginx/sympa-access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/sympa-error.log;

    location /static-sympa/ {
        alias /usr/share/sympa/static_content/;
        access_log off;
    }

    location /css-sympa/ {
        alias /var/lib/sympa/css/;
        access_log off;
    }

    location /pictures-sympa/ {
        alias /var/lib/sympa/pictures/;
        access_log off;
    }

    location / {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/sympa/wwsympa.socket;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/lib/cgi-bin/sympa/wwsympa.fcgi;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME "";
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $uri;
    }
}

• Postfix tries to run some sympa stuff as an unprivileged user. Add this line to have it run as the sympa user instead:

sympa     unix  -       n       n      -        -       pipe
  flags=R user=sympa argv=/usr/lib/sympa/bin/queue ${recipient}

• add this to the mydestination line: <YOUR SUBDOMAIN>
• add hash:/etc/postfix/transport to the transport_maps line
• add hash:/etc/sympa/aliases.sympa.postfix to alias_maps
• add alias_database = hash:/etc/sympa/aliases.sympa.postfix
• suggestion (for sending larger emails): message_size_limit = 41943040

sympa     unix  -       n       n      -        -       pipe
  flags=R user=sympa argv=/usr/lib/sympa/bin/queue ${recipient}

wwsympa_url <YOUR_SUBDOMAIN>

# 1. Add email address text when list is created
alias_manager /usr/lib/sympa/bin/alias_manager.pl

# 2. compile email address text and add to db
aliases_program /usr/sbin/postalias

# 3. file Location for text and db
sendmail_aliases /etc/sympa/aliases.sympa.postfix

# If you have trouble change from default log_level 1
log_level 2

# The sympa manager defaults to sympa so emails to subscribe/unsubscribe etc. will come from sympa@DOMAIN. You can change this. For example, to have them come from manager instead add the below line:
email manager

• config is at /etc/sympa/sympa/sympa.conf
• when reading official documentation $SYSCONFDIR is /etc/sympa
• when reading official documentation $LIBEXECDIR is /usr/share/sympa/bin

• sympa logs go to syslog. View in realtime: sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog | grep --line-buffered -Ei 'sympa|wwsympa
• postfix logs go to /var/log/mail.log

• if forwarding emails to Amazon SES for sending, Amazon gets upset because of a duplicate header: Precedence
  • This is because Sympa adds a Precedence: bulk (or list) header automatically to all list traffic to help spam filters identify it as a mailing list.
  • Apparently the outgoing sender might have also added a Precedence header or maybe sympa is just confused
  • The result is that there is no Precedence header at all but that header has been obsoleted anyway so nothing lost
• to fix, add to /etc/sympa/sympa/sympa.conf: remove_outgoing_headers Precedence
  • also available as a setting in the UI in sending/receiving setup → Header fields to be removed before message distribution (remove_outgoing_headers)(default)

Sympa uses a “Cascading” template system. It looks for a template (like welcome.tt2) in this specific order:

1. List Level: /var/lib/sympa/list_data/[list_name]/mail_tt2/ (Highest Priority)
2. Robot/Domain Level: /etc/sympa/[domain]/mail_tt2/
3. Site Level: /etc/sympa/mail_tt2/
4. Default: /usr/share/sympa/default/mail_tt2/ (Lowest Priority)

• have 2 footers, one plaintext (message.footer) and one html (message.footer.mime)

1. List Level: /etc/sympa/list_configs/[list_name]/message.footer.mime
2. Robot / Domain Level: /etc/sympa/lists.lawrencemakers.org/message.footer.mime
3. Site / Global Level: /etc/sympa/message.footer.mime
4. Default: /usr/share/sympa/default/message.footer.mime

• There's the “standard” list-unsubscribe header as defined in RFC 2369 and a newer “one-click” header as defined in RFC 8058
• Sympa v6.2.70 as packaged with ubuntu 24.04 generates the standard header automatically by default
• The newer “one-click” header is not supported until v6.2.72

• If the header is working properly there will be a line of hidden metadata at the top of an email that looks something like

List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:sympa@<DOMAIN>?subject=SIGNOFF%20<LIST_NAME>>, <https://<DOMAIN>/signoff/<LIST_NAME>/user@email.com>

• If this header is present, Gmail, Yahoo, and “friends” will automatically display their native “Unsubscribe” button next to the sender's name.

• config file located at: /var/lib/sympa/list_data/<LISTNAME>/config
• To get the emails sent from the list instead of the sender in the UI:
  • Admin → Edit List Config → DKIM/DMARC/ARC
    • DMARC Protection → All
    • New From name format → "Name" (via list)
• Change the from address from the sender to the list:
  • Admin → Edit List Config → Sending/Receiving Setup
  • "Reply address" → change to All
• Prepend the list name to the subjects when sending out:
  • Admin → Edit List Config → Sending/Receiving Setup
  • Subject tagging (custom_subject) → [% list.name %]
• Get rid of the “via list” in the from:
  • Admin → Edit List Config → DKIM/DMARC/ARC
  • New From name format (phrase) → set to Name
• consider increasing max message size:
  • Admin → Edit List Config → Sending/Receiving Setup
  • Maximum message size (max_size)(default) → 20971520
• allow subscribers to view who is subscribed:
  • Who can review subscribers (review) → Restricted to subscribers (private)
• create a list template to change the defaults for a new list:

# make a home for the new default override
sudo mkdir -p /etc/sympa/create_list_templates
# copy from the original default
sudo cp -r /usr/share/sympa/default/create_list_templates/discussion_list /etc/sympa/create_list_templates/
# edit to your heart's content:
sudo emacs -nw /etc/sympa/create_list_templates/discussion_list/config.tt2

• the logo does not change the size of the blue line at the top of the site so you will get a logo that straddles blue and white
• with the nginx setup above the logo and favicon images should live at /usr/share/sympa/static_content
• to get sympa to see them edit/add these lines to /etc/sympa/sympa/sympa.conf:

logo_html_definition <a href="https://<DOMAIN>"><img src="/static-sympa/<FILENAME>" alt="my great logo" style="max-height: 120px; width: auto; border: 0;"></a>
# adjust max-height as appropriate
favicon_url /static-sympa/<BASEFILENAME>.ico

• Sympa uses null sender (<>) when sending automated administrative messages like “post rejected: you aren't a member of the list”
• Amazon SES rejects null sender on SMTP relay (all my testing confirmed this and their AI FAQ thingie says this as well)
• Sending direct (skipping Amazon SES relay) fails too at least for gmail, who blocks null sender from my server address and accepts other addresses from the same server IP
• I tried many many attempts to get Postfix to replace the null sender with noreply@ and after hours of this gave up

yes I know this is a terrible workaround but couldn't figure out anything better

• Edit Sympa's /usr/share/sympa/lib/Sympa/Mailer.pm to use no-reply@ instead of null. In the file:

#change
($return_path eq '<>' ? '' : $return_path), '--', @rcpt;
#to
($return_path eq '<>' ? 'no-reply@SYMPA_SUBDOMAIN' : $return_path), '--', @rcpt;

• write a simple script to make sure you are notified if Mailer.pm ever gets updated:

#!/bin/bash

FILE="/usr/share/sympa/lib/Sympa/Mailer.pm"
TARGET_MD5="<PUT MD5 HERE>"


# Check if the file exists
if [ ! -f "$FILE" ]; then
    /usr/bin/echo "Error: File '$FILE' not found."
    /usr/bin/logger -t checkMailer "Error: File '$FILE' not found."
    /usr/bin/swaks --from FROM_ADDR --to TO_ADDR --h-Subject "checkMailer: FILE NOT FOUND" --body "Error: File '$FILE' not found." --server localhost

    exit 1
fi

# Get the md5 of the file
MD5=$(md5sum /usr/share/sympa/lib/Sympa/Mailer.pm | awk {'print $1'})

# Compare the md5 to the target
if [ "$MD5" == "$TARGET_MD5" ]; then
    /usr/bin/echo "INFO: md5 for $FILE matches target."
    /usr/bin/logger -t checkMailer "INFO: md5 for $FILE matches target."
    /usr/bin/swaks --from FROM_ADDR --to TO_ADDR --h-Subject "checkMailer: md5 matches" --body "Good news: the md5 of $FILE has not changed" --server localhost
else
    /usr/bin/echo "WARNING: md5 for $FILE does NOT match target."
    /usr/bin/logger -t checkMailer "WARNING: md5 for $FILE does NOT match target."
    /usr/bin/swaks --from FROM_ADDR --to TO_ADDR --h-Subject "checkMailer: md5 does NOT match" --body "Bad news: the md5 of $FILE changed. Update null sender now." --server localhost
fi

• chmod 755 and set up a daily cron for the script
• set Sympa to dump any bounced emails to noreply@:
  • in /etc/sympa/aliases.sympa.postfix add no-reply: "|/bin/true"
  • sudo postalias /etc/sympa/aliases.sympa.postfix
  • sudo postfix reload

Outlook is pretty unhappy with Content-Type: multipart/report. To fix this:

• change /etc/sympa/mail_tt2/delivery_status_notification.tt2 from Content-Type: multipart/report to Content-Type: text/plain
• To make it look pretty, you will definitely want make some other changes to the template as well

• It's a good idea to set the domain up with Google Postmaster Tools for some analytics sending to gmail addresses if you ever need it
• There's a list template which sets the defaults for new lists when they are created. It's possible to override with a new template. I did not look further into this.
• completely removing a list needs to happen from the CLI: sudo /usr/lib/sympa/bin/sympa.pl --purge_list=LISTNAME@SUBDOMAIN_OF_WEB_UI
• From the documentation: “By default, text body of mail template (except attached part described in above) is wrapped. X-Sympa-NoWrap pseudo-header field prevents line wrapping.”