[Mailman-Users] need help with configuration

[Kit Stube]

Bob wrote:

> Hi
>
> I sent a help request several hours ago, but have since, in my own 
> efforts to understand and fix, un-installed and re-installed mailman. 
> This is where I am at now.
>
> I am running mailman 2.1.4-5 on a Debian system with Exim4. This is 
> with the split configuration files instead of the single configuration 
> file for exim. I have created a list (test) and that worked. I have 
> added users to the list and that worked. I then sent an email to the 
> list (test at livingsky.net) and that didn't work. It seems that mailman 
> is expecting for the group to be daemon and the group that exim is 
> set-up for is Debian-exim. Since this is a Debian installation, I have 
> no control over setting the default user and group that mailman sets 
> up with (--with-mail-gid=). Is there any way to fix this? This is the 
> bounce that I get from exim/mailman when I send the test message
>
>> A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
>> recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
>>
>>  pipe to |/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman post test
>>    generated by test at livingsky.net
>>    local delivery failed
>>
>> The following text was generated during the delivery attempt:
>>
>> ------ pipe to |/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman post test
>>       generated by test at livingsky.net ------
>>
>> Group mismatch error.  Mailman expected the mail
>> wrapper script to be executed as group "daemon", but
>> the system's mail server executed the mail script as
>> group "Debian-exim".  
>

The answer is here:

>> Try tweaking the mail server to run the
>> script as group "daemon", or re-run configure, providing the command 
>> line option `--with-mail-gid=Debian-exim'.
>>
> Please note that I am a relatively new user to linux. I am not a 
> programmer or trained systems expert, so simple explanations would be 
> appreciated.
>
Well, your problem is that your mail server is running as a certian user 
(Debian-exim), which means that it has that users permissions.  Your 
mail server is trying to start another script (the mailman script in 
question) which needs to be run as a different user (daemon).  You can 
either:
1. modify what user your mail server runs as
2. modify what user mailman runs as
3. try to get your mail server to run the script as the mailman user

I'm not an exim admin so I can't help you with options 1 or 3.  I run 
postfix on my server.

If you want to use option 2, as suggested by the error message above you 
will need to reinstall mailman.  When you install mailman, you run 
configure with the  --with-mail-gid=Debian-exim.
ie:
./configure --with-mail-gid=Debian-exim

It will then configure mailman to be run as the user your mailer wants 
to use to run the script.

-- 
Kit Stube
Unix Systems Administrator
Illinois Wesleyan University
309-556-3445
kit at iwu.edu

IWU Tech Support
309-556-3900