[Mailman-Users] basic postfix/mailman setup issue

[Mark Sapiro]

Peter wrote:
> 
> I have not been able to have mailman generate the aliases automatically.  I 
> decided, for now, to go manual.  I put the aliases I got from 'genaliases' 
> inside postfix's alias file and then generated the new db ('newaliases').
> 
> Now I am getting the group mismatch error:


Because of the owner:group of /etc/mail/aliases


> Group mismatch error.  Mailman expected the mail wrapper script to be executed 
> as group "_mailman", but the system's mail server executed the mail script as 
> group "nobody".  Try tweaking the mail server to run the script as 
> group "_mailman", or re-run configure,  providing the command line option 
> `--with-mail-gid=nobody'. )
> 
> Yet I have read that this has been fixed since OpenBSD 3.8.  I have installed 
> the postfix flavour (of mailman) via OBSD packages.  I guess I can remove it 
> and install via OBSD ports and specify the configure option
> '--with-mail-gid=mailman'.


With Postfix, you fix this by ensuring that the aliases* files in which 
Mailman's aliases are found are group mailman. That's only one reason 
why you want Mailman-Postfix integration.


> Re mailman-generated aliases:
> I cannot determine where this mailman package stores them.  I created 
> /var/spool/mailman/data/aliases but nothing gets put there.


They get stored in Mailman's data/ directory which you shouldn't have to 
create and which almost certainly is not /var/spool/mailman/data. Look 
in Defaults.py for the definition of VAR_PREFIX, and that's where you'll 
find it.


> This is what I have put in mm_cfg.py:
> 
> add_virtualhost( 'mailman.domain.com' )
> MTA = 'Postfix'
> POSTFIX_ALIAS_CMD = '/usr/local/sbin/postalias'
> POSTFIX_MAP_CMD = '/usr/local/sbin/postmap'
> 
> Plus...
> 
> once I edited this file (as above) I received an error when trying to create a 
> list ("We're sorry, we hit a bug!").  The list does get created.  I'm sure 
> this error is related to the aliases.


Yes, it almost certainly is. What is the traceback for this error from 
Mailman's 'error' log. Or alternatively, if you have the lines

MTA = 'Postfix'
POSTFIX_ALIAS_CMD = '/usr/local/sbin/postalias'
POSTFIX_MAP_CMD = '/usr/local/sbin/postmap'

in mm_cfg.py and you run Mailman's bin/genaliases, and you don't get the 
same exception and traceback, the issue is almost certainly that you can 
update Mailman's aliases and run /usr/local/sbin/postalias, but there is 
a permissions issue when 'mailman' does it.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan