[Mailman-Users] I don't really know what is right or wrong

[Tim Legg]

Hello,

I am trying to follow the instructions as best as I can, but I don't think
I am understanding it correctly.  Is there any better document other than
the INSTALL document that comes with mailman-208?  I honestly can't see
myself installing mailman by using this document.

Here are some questions/problems I came across anyway.

In step 1, I was to create an installation directory which is referred to
as $prefix.  The next paragraph told me that /home/mailman is the default.
I copied the tarball into this directory for installation and followed the
remaining steps.  In step 2 I ran ./configure  The directory where my
source code was present was /home/mailman/ and since that was the default,
I didn't have to chenge that.  make install worked perfectly but
check_perms found 333 problems.  At the end of step 3, I am told to run
check_perms from a location other than the source directory.

I thought the install directory and source directory were the same thing
and that make install would just copy the files to where ever they need to
be.  But now I am told that they need to be different.  Where was I
supposed to save my soucre then?  Is /home/mailman the right place, or did
I screw up royally doing that?

I honestly don't have any idea what is going on anymore.  I am probably
beyond any hope at this point, now that neither the FreeBSD ports version
worked or my building it manually.  Is this really meant to be run under
FreeBSD?  At how awkward this install is, I am beginning to have my
doubts.

I also don't know what all that set-group-id stuff is about or how python
works.  It took forever to find that there is no Run command for 'Run
bin/check/perms' as written in Step 3.

What I need is a step-by-step description telling me what I need to type
in order to get this thing installed on a freshly installed version of
FreeBSD.  Is there anything that can be done?