[Mailman-Users] What the $%#*)^ causes this????!!!

[Dave Klingler]

I periodically wake up to find this in my mailbox:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/mailman/cron/gate_news", line 222, in ?
    main()
  File "/home/mailman/cron/gate_news", line 203, in main
    process_lists(lock)
  File "/home/mailman/cron/gate_news", line 140, in process_lists
    mlist = MailList.MailList(listname, lock=0)
  File "/home/mailman/Mailman/MailList.py", line 79, in __init__
    self.Load()
  File "/home/mailman/Mailman/MailList.py", line 891, in Load
    dict, e = self.__load(dbfile)
  File "/home/mailman/Mailman/MailList.py", line 868, in __load
    fp = open(dbfile)
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/mailman/lists/steering/config.db'

Invariably the ownership of the config.db file has been changed to "www".
I'm sure it's because someone has logged in and unsubscribed or made other
changes to their account.  I usually react by changing the ownership to
"mailman" or making the file permissions permiscuous.  This seems to fix the 
problem for some random period.

This machine is an OpenBSD box.  I haven't yet figured out the ins and outs
of it yet, but for some reason the installation will only run as root.  It's
possible that there is something unique to OpenBSD that's security-related
causing my problem, but I've gotten this one before on another machine, a 
virtual host.  Anyone have any clues?

Thanks!
Dave Klingler