[Mailman-Users] Pesky, Persistent error messages

[Mark Sapiro]

Adam Roberts wrote:
>
>I have recently installed and configured (or so it would appear) Mailman
>2.1.9 on top of Postfix 2.5 and Ubuntu 8.04.  I am up and running with my
>first mailing list but I'm getting an error in my log file that continues to
>baffle me.  Granted, it may be something simple, but I'm rather confused and
>am turning to the collective wisdom of the Interwebs for answers.
>
>A `tail` from my log file (/var/log/mail.log):
>
>Feb 15 21:18:52 PyHost01 postfix/qmgr[15994]: 7C4586E0B8: from=<
>mailman at mydomain.com>, size=628, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
>Feb 15 21:18:52 PyHost01 postfix/local[27805]: 7EC056DF47: to=<
>mailman at mydomain.com>, orig_to=<mailman>, relay=local, delay=1130,
>delays=1130/0.01/0/0.04, dsn=4.3.0, status=deferred (temporary failure.
>Command output: local: fatal: execvp /var/lib/mailman/mail: Permission
>denied )
> Feb 15 21:18:52 PyHost01 local[27831]: fatal: execvp /var/lib/mailman/mail:
>Permission denied
>Feb 15 21:18:52 PyHost01 postfix/qmgr[15994]: 756866E0E2: from=<
>mailman at mydomain.com>, size=628, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
>Feb 15 21:18:52 PyHost01 local[27832]: fatal: execvp /var/lib/mailman/mail:
>Permission denied
>Feb 15 21:18:52 PyHost01 postfix/local[27812]: 7C4586E0B8: to=<
>mailman at mydomain.com>, orig_to=<mailman>, relay=local, delay=10131,
>delays=10131/0.02/0/0.04, dsn=4.3.0, status=deferred
>(temporary failure. Command output: local: fatal: execvp
>/var/lib/mailman/mail: Permission denied )
>Feb 15 21:20:01 PyHost01 postfix/pickup[24405]: 58EE46E0E9: uid=1002
>from=<mailman> Feb 15 21:20:01 PyHost01 postfix/cleanup[27841]: 58EE46E0E9:
>message-id=<20090216022001.58EE46E0E9 at mydomain.com>
>Feb 15 21:20:01 PyHost01 postfix/qmgr[15994]: 58EE46E0E9: from=<
>mailman at mydomain.com>, size=628, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
>Feb 15 21:20:01 PyHost01 local[27844]: fatal: execvp /var/lib/mailman/mail:
>Permission denied
>
>
>and from my error log (/var/log/mail.err):
>
>Feb 15 21:18:52 PyHost01 local[27831]: fatal: execvp /var/lib/mailman/mail:
>Permission denied
>Feb 15 21:18:52 PyHost01 local[27832]: fatal: execvp /var/lib/mailman/mail:
>Permission denied
>Feb 15 21:18:52 PyHost01 local[27833]: fatal: execvp/var/lib/mailman/mail:
>Permission denied
>Feb 15 21:20:01 PyHost01 local[27844]: fatal: execvp/var/lib/mailman/mail:
>Permission denied
>
>
>The above error messages repeat themselves with great frequency.  They don't
>appear to be having an affect on operations as I can send and receive mail
>and my mailing lists are working.


Where are your Mailman aliases? They may be in Mailman's data/
directory if you have Mailman-Postfix integration or they may have
been manually added in /etc/aliases.

Either way, what is the ownership of the corresponding aliases.db file,
and what is the ownership and permissions on /var/lib/mailman/,
/var/lib/mailman/mail and /var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman (they should
all be group mailman, SETGID and owner, group and world readable and
executable/searchable).

Also note that if you have Mailman aliases in both places (data/aliases
and /etc/aliases), this is wrong. If Mailman-Postfix integration is
putting aliases in data/aliases, there should be no Mailman aliases in
/etc/aliases.

Also, do these errors affect only mail to mailman at mydomain.com, or are
other lists affected too? If it's only mailman at mydomain.com, perhaps
you have aliases for the mailman list only in /etc/aliases and/or they
are wrong. E.g.

mailman:  "|/var/lib/mailman/mail post mailman"

etc. instead of

mailman:  "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman post mailman"

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