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

Darren backdoc at crotchett.com
Wed Jan 9 06:47:47 CET 2002


Well, your instructions are very nice and well written.  Except, don't
forget about cron and editing apache.  However, in Tim's case, he is
installing on FreeBSD.  This changes things if he decides to use the ports
system.  He can install following your directions, but installing via the
FreeBSD ports is a little different.

For example, you do not have to create a mailman user or mailman group.  It
is done for you.  The mailman directory is not /home/mailman.  It is
/usr/local/mailman.  The port install of mailman has flaws, but I believe
that the ports is still the way to go.  If he going to use the ports, he
should do it a little differently.

Please let me know if it helps or has holes in it.  Until the ports are
fixed, he might try this:
(This assumses Postfix and Apache are already installed)

cd /usr/ports/mail/mailman
make --with-mail-gid=nobody --with-cgi-gid=www
make clean
make install
chown -R mailman:mailman /usr/local/mailman
crontab -u mailman /usr/local/mailman/cron/crontab.in  (do I need a -e after
mailman?)

Add the following lines to /usr/local/etc/apache/httpd.conf after you see
the cgi stuff already there, add a pointer to the new mailman cgi stuff.
The cgi stuff that is already in there looks like this:
<start copy of existing cgi stuff>
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/usr/local/www/cgi-bin/"

    #
    # "/usr/local/www/cgi-bin" should be changed to whatever your
ScriptAliased
    # CGI directory exists, if you have that configured.
    #
    <Directory "/usr/local/www/cgi-bin">
        AllowOverride None
        Options None
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</end copy of existing cgi stuff>

##############   Add your stuff to httpd.conf here     ####################
## The following stanza was copied from:
##      http://www.linuxhelp.net/guides/joey/mailman.shtml
## It makes mailman work

     ScriptAlias /mailman/ "/usr/local/mailman/cgi-bin/"

     <Directory "/usr/local/mailman/cgi-bin/">
         AllowOverride None
         Options FollowSymLinks ExecCGI
         Order allow,deny
         Allow from all
     </Directory>

     Alias /pipermail/ "/usr/local/mailman/archives/public/"

## End of mailman stanza
##
###################################################################


Restart apache with "apachectl restart".
Change directories to the /usr/local/mailman/bin and run newlist with the
following two commands.
(note, you have to be in that directory when your run it -- so do it like
this)
    cd /usr/local/mailman/bin
    ./newlist
Cut and paste the aliases it creates to the /etc/aliases file
run newaliases by typing "newaliases" as root
restart Postfix with "postfix reload"
edit /usr/local/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py according to the INSTALL file or
the online documentation.

You should be good to go.  Go to www.yourdomain.com/mailman/listinfo.  Or,
www.localhost.com/mailman/listinfo if you are on the host machine.  You
really need to look read through the mailman install documentation.



Darren

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Carnes" <jonc at nc.rr.com>
To: "Tim Legg" <mail_man at pc047113.stuorg.iastate.edu>;
<mailman-users at python.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] I don't really know what is right or wrong


> The archives have a better step-by-step of the setup but here is a little
> more detail:
>
> You should copy the source to some directory, it really doesn't matter
> where.  I like to use /usr/src/mailman/...
>
> Once you have the source expanded into that directory (download the source
> as a tar.gz file and use "tar -xzf ..." to expand it), then you can start
> the install.
>
> I've only installed it on Linux - and works great.
>
> Create a group on the local server named "mailman". Create a user on the
> local server named "mailman" and add him to the group "mailman".  Create a
> home directory for the user mailman (usually /home/mailman).  Make sure
> that the user "mailman" and group "mailman" own the directory.
>
> Do you have "sendmail" installed as your MTA (mail-server)?  Mailman works
> with many different MTA's but 2.08 assumes that you are using a sendmail
> compliant mail-server and gives you messages compliant with Sendmail.
> Surprisingly, you will find that its integration with Postfix, Exim, and
> Qmail are actually tighter and make Mailman ultimately easier to use...
but
> I digress.
>
> Find out what Group-ID your MTA runs as, then find out what Group-ID your
> Web server runs as.  You will need these to run the ./configure program.
>
> The INSTALL text lays this out fairly nicely, and if you are confused
about
> it, you can simply run install without specifying the GID's.  Later if
> there are problems, you can look at the error logs in Mailman, and they
> will point out the proper GID's that you should have used
>
> Once you run "./configure"  and then  "make install"
> you will find that the install has put multiple files into the home
> directory that you created for the user "mailman".
>
> From this point you can edit the file: ~mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py (using
> Default.py as the guide), and then you can create your lists using
> ~mailman/bin/newlist
>
> To run "check_perms", change to the directory ~mailman/bin/ and run
> ./check_perms.
>
> ~mailman means the home directory for the users "mailman" (/home/mailman)
>
> Hope this helps...
>
> Jon Carnes
> On Tuesday 08 January 2002 22:54, Tim Legg wrote:
> > 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?
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------
> > Mailman-Users maillist  -  Mailman-Users at python.org
> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Mailman-Users maillist  -  Mailman-Users at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users
>





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