[Mailman-Users] Pesky, Persistent error messages

[Adam Roberts]

Thanks to everyone for the follow-ups.

Mark:

I looked at my aliases file (/etc/aliases) and you're correct.  My
'mailman' aliases were listed as :

> mailman:  "|/var/lib/mailman/mail post mailman"
>
> etc. instead of
>
> mailman:  "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman post mailman"

Those were the defaults that the installation indicated I should add
for the mailman list.  I didn't think to much of it at the time, but I
installed from the Ubuntu package using apt-get after a failed attempt
from source (really not sure what I was doing wrong, but oh well).  I
guess the Ubuntu package (as usual) follows a different directory
convention that what's expected.

I changed the aliases file, did a `newaliases`, and reloaded Postfix.
Within a few seconds the backed-up messages poured into my inbox and
the error is no long showing in the log file.


Also, Grant, thanks for your suggestion.  I made sure the proper user
had permission on /var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman.  It wasn't until
Mark's email that I put 2 and 2 together.

Thanks everyone!!

Adam Roberts






On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 11:34 AM, Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net> wrote:
> 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
>
>



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