[Mailman-Users] Mailman vs OSX vs launchd

[Bryan Harrison]

I've built and installed Mailman 2.12 from current source code and  
have it running just fine under OS X Server 10.5.7, with on exception,  
which is not properly speaking a Mailman problem at all.

If I start Mailman from the CLI, using /usr/share/mailman/bin/ 
mailmanctl -s start, all is well.

If I allow launchd to start it using the following Launch Daemon…

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd 
">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>org.list.mailmanctl</string>
	<key>OnDemand</key>
	<false/>
	<key>Program</key>
	<string>/usr/share/mailman/bin/mailmanctl</string>
	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
		<string>mailmanctl</string>
		<string>-s</string>
		<string>start</string>
	</array>
	<key>ServiceIPC</key>
	<false/>
</dict>
</plist>

…I get an endless succession of…

Jun 18 16:50:26 org.list.mailmanctl[1697]: Starting Mailman's master  
qrunner.
Jun 18 16:50:26 com.apple.launchd[1] (org.list.mailmanctl[1697]):  
Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 1698 PPID 1 Python
Jun 18 16:50:26 com.apple.launchd[1] (org.list.mailmanctl): Throttling  
respawn: Will start in 9 seconds

…complete with dawn-of-the-dead respawning processes.

I configured Mailman to replicate OSXS's default locations, and it  
runs fine.  It doesn't even break Server Admin, aside from my use of  
virtual domains which ServerAdmin can't handle.

The only difference between my org.list.mailmanctl.plist and Apple's  
is my verb *start*, as opposed to Apple's *startf*.  I'm baffled by  
*startf*, which is not supported by mailman and does nothing, either  
in the CLI or in org.list.mailmanctl.plist.

Obviously this isn't fatal and there are even other ways to insure an  
automatic startup, but I use launchd for such things, Apple more or  
less deprecates other approaches, and it drives me nuts not to  
understand what's going on.

Speak, oh voices of wisdom!

-Bryan