[Mailman-Users] Permission problems during new setup ([Errno 13] Permission denied)

[Scott Spence]

Hi all Python/Mailman experts,

I am having problems setting up Mailman (1.1 and 2.05, 2.08 and 2.07) My
problem seems to revolve around permissions. I configured mailman with the
following command line (as suggested by the exim-howto):

./configure --with-mail-gid=8 --with-cgi-gid=65534
--prefix=/var/lib/mailman --with-ownername=mail --with-ownergroup=mail
--with-username=mail --host=noggon.com --with-groupname=mail

Firstly almost all installed files need their permissions changed (using
bin/check_perms bad gid (has: scott, expected mail) (fixing)) - is this a
normal part of installation?

Once all steps in the INSTALL file have been done then begin the errors
(in the apache error log):

Traceback (innermost last):
  File "/var/lib/mailman/scripts/driver", line 71, in run_main
    immediate=1)
  File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/Logging/StampedLogger.py", line 49, in
__init__
    Logger.__init__(self, category, nofail, immediate)
  File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Logger.py", line 40, in __init__
    self.__get_f()
  File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/Logging/Logger.py", line 55, in __get_f
    f = self.__fp = open(self.__filename, 'a+', 1)
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/lib/mailman/logs/error'

But what I do not understand is that the permission on the error file seem
as I would expect!:
-rw-rw-r--    1 mail     mail    0 Feb 18 18:22 /var/lib/mailman/logs/error

It seems as though the webserver must have write permission to the
logs/error file - this makes sense as the error is being created by the
cgi-bin script. But annoying! and not picked up by check_perms

Correcting the permissions (so the webserver has access to the files)
seems to put the permissions in a loop of webserver->mail->webserver
(each change causing an error).

Creating a list using bin/newlist also causes problems because the list
files (esp. /var/lib/mailman/lists/test/config.db) does not allow the
webserver to read it - so viewing details of this list causes an error

I have searched high and low for others having similar problems but none
give insight into a solution.

I would appreicate any help

Thanks

Scott

Additional information:

The exim configuration (as per the Howto) seems to function fine.


- My exim (MTA) runs as mail:mail
- Apache runs as nobody:nogroup
- apache 1.3.9-14
- exim           3.12-10.2
- python-base 1.5.2-10potato Python 1.5.2 (#0, Dec 27 2000, 13:59:38)
[GCC 2.95.2 20000220 (Debian GNU/Linux)] on linux2

-- error log from $prefix/logs/error

admin(11163): [----- Mailman Version: 2.0.7 -----]
admin(11163): [----- Traceback ------]
admin(11163): Traceback (innermost last):
admin(11163):   File "/var/lib/mailman/scripts/driver", line 96, in
run_main
admin(11163):     main()
admin(11163):   File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/Cgi/subscribe.py", line 69,
in main
admin(11163):     mlist.Lock()
admin(11163):   File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/MailList.py", line 1339, in
Lock
admin(11163):     self.__lock.lock(timeout)
admin(11163):   File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/LockFile.py", line 219, in
lock
admin(11163):     self.__write()
admin(11163):   File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/LockFile.py", line 350, in
__write
admin(11163):     fp = open(self.__tmpfname, 'w')
admin(11163): IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied:
'/var/lib/mailman/locks/test.lock.kiko.11163'
admin(11163): [----- Python Information -----]
admin(11163): sys.version    = 1.5.2 (#0, Dec 27 2000, 13:59:38)  [GCC
2.95.2 20000220 (Debian GNU/Linux)]
admin(11163): sys.executable = /usr/bin/python
admin(11163): sys.prefix     = /usr
admin(11163): sys.exec_prefix= /usr
admin(11163): sys.path       = /usr
admin(11163): sys.platform   = linux2
admin(11163): [----- Environment Variables -----]
admin(11163):   DOCUMENT_ROOT: /var/www/noggon/
admin(11163):   SERVER_ADDR: 195.149.61.228
admin(11163):   HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING: gzip, deflate
admin(11163):   CONTENT_LENGTH: 77
admin(11163):   CONTENT_TYPE: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
admin(11163):   PATH_TRANSLATED: /var/www/noggon/test
admin(11163):   GATEWAY_INTERFACE: CGI/1.1
admin(11163):   UNIQUE_ID: PHE9WMOVPeQAACckJ3w
admin(11163):   HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE: en-gb
admin(11163):   SERVER_PROTOCOL: HTTP/1.1
admin(11163):   REMOTE_ADDR: 213.98.26.235
admin(11163):   SERVER_PORT: 80
admin(11163):   HTTP_CONNECTION: Keep-Alive
admin(11163):   HTTP_USER_AGENT: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0;
Windows 98)
admin(11163):   HTTP_ACCEPT: */*
admin(11163):   REQUEST_URI: /cgi-bin/mailman/subscribe/test
admin(11163):   PATH: /bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin
admin(11163):   QUERY_STRING:
admin(11163):   SCRIPT_FILENAME: /var/www/noggon/cgi-bin/mailman/subscribe
admin(11163):   PATH_INFO: /test
admin(11163):   HTTP_HOST: www.noggon.com
admin(11163):   REQUEST_METHOD: POST
admin(11163):   SERVER_SIGNATURE:
admin(11163):   SCRIPT_NAME: /cgi-bin/mailman/subscribe
admin(11163):   SERVER_ADMIN: scott at noggon.com
admin(11163):   SERVER_SOFTWARE: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) Debian/GNU
admin(11163):   PYTHONPATH: /var/lib/mailman
admin(11163):   HTTP_COOKIE:
test:admin=280200000069db27713c732800000038353934663736313965333039303735393865363033663136313239303534373037306537333832
admin(11163):   SERVER_NAME: www.noggon.com
admin(11163):   REMOTE_PORT: 60795
admin(11163):   HTTP_REFERER: http://www.noggon.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/test