[Mailman-Users] No mail going out to list members (possible postfix smtp or alias problem?)

[A.N.Varady]

Problem: No mail is being currently bing sent from my lists to the 
list's members. New posts are being received by my MTA (Postfix), sent 
to Mailman, processed by Pipermail, and added to archives. The Mailman 
smtp log, however, does not indicate any of these posts being sent out.

I am running:
    Mailman 2.1.3 (via tar.gz source)
    Redhat 7.2
    Postfix - 20010228 - pl03
    Procmail 3.21
    Spamassassin 2.60

Background: After receiving more and more spam on my local user accounts 
and on my mailman lists, I installed Procmail and Spamassassin. I 
configured Postfix to use Procmail (and for procmail to run 
spamassassin). Everything was working fine, and spam was being shunted 
away from my user accounts and into junk folders, but then I noticed 
that no new posts were being disseminated through mailman to my 
listserves. New posts were showing up in the listserve archives, though.

Also, I gave up on trying to get procmail/spamassassin to work with 
Mailman. The aliases generated in data/aliases do no conform with the 
Mailman-Spamassassin recommendation recommended in the FAQ. Using a 
seperate aliases file with that method didn't work anyways (not sure 
why). In any case, I had bigger problems to worry about than spam when 
the listserves ceased functioning properly.


Troubleshooting:
I googled for help and searched the archives of this list. Postfix is 
working, but not Mailman, so I am posting for help in this forum. I 
followed the suggestions in the Mailman FAQ (Entry 3.14) to no avail.
* I added 127.0.0.1 to SMTPHOST in mm_cfg.py and I moved all of the 
queued files out of the qfiles\old directory and into a temporary 
directory.
* check_perms indicates everything is ok.
* qrunner _is_ running.
* Besides qrunner there are no other locks.
* crond is running.
* Mailman aliases are being recognized by Postfix. Postfix logs indicate 
that (per the aliases) posts are being sent to mail/mailman for processing.
* Removing procmail from postfix (via the mailbox_command) did not help. 
Removing /etc/procmailrc did not help, either. (However, their removal 
did stop spamassassin from working).

Relevant configuration files:

<MAILMAN, from mm_cfg.py>
IMAGE_LOGOS = '/images/'
PUBLIC_ARCHIVE_URL = '/pipermail'
PRIVATE_ARCHIVE_URL = '/mailman/private'
MTA = 'Postfix'
SMTPHOST = '127.0.0.1'
</MAILMAN>


<MAILMAN, example of a typical list from data/aliases>
mailman-loop: /home/mailman/data/owner-bounces.mbox

# STANZA START: test
# CREATED: Thu Dec 11 18:06:05 2003
test:             "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman post test"
test-admin:       "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman admin test"
test-bounces:     "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman bounces test"
test-confirm:     "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman confirm test"
test-join:        "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman join test"
test-leave:       "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman leave test"
test-owner:       "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman owner test"
test-request:     "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman request test"
test-subscribe:   "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman subscribe test"
test-unsubscribe: "|/home/mailman/mail/mailman unsubscribe test"
</MAILMAN aliases>

<POSTFIX, via "postconf -n">
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_maps = hash:/home/mailman/data/aliases
command_directory = /usr/sbin
daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix
debug_peer_level = 2
disable_vrfy_command = yes
fast_flush_domains = $relay_domains
inet_interfaces = all
mail_owner = postfix
mail_spool_directory = /var/spool/mail
mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail -t
mydestination = phobos.serve.com, phobos.simpletone.com
mydomain = phobos.serve.com
myhostname = phobos.serve.com
mynetworks_style = host
myorigin = $myhostname
queue_directory = /var/spool/postfix
relay_domains = $mydestination, 170.140.189.158, 170.140.189.224
smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, check_relay_domains
smtpd_sender_restrictions = reject_unknown_sender_domain, 
reject_invalid_hostname
</POSTFIX>


<PROCMAIL>
For some reason (I don't quite understand), spamassassin/procmail won't 
work for my user accounts with /etc/procmail. Simply using .procmail in 
user directories didn't seem to work. Making a separate 
/etc/procmail-mailman (|/home/mailman/mail/mailman post $LIST) with a 
"test: '|/usr/bin/procmail -m LIST=test /etc/procmailrc-mailman'" in 
/etc/aliases didn't work either.
</PROCMAIL>

I have given up on getting spamassassin to work with Mailman and would 
settle for my lists to start functioning properly again.

Any support or help would be well appreciated.

Thanks for your help,
Aharon Varady