[Mailman-Users] Mailman list sends but doesn't receive mail.

[JRC Groups]

Mark,


Just as you suspected changing permissions to r--r--r-- didn't resolve the
problem. The file is still edited after the permission have been modified.


On 4/16/11 4:06 PM, "Mark Sapiro" <mark at msapiro.net> wrote:

> JRC Groups wrote:
>> 
>> It has been suggested to me an approach that I thought might resolve the
>> problem I am experiencing with the changes constantly made by OS X Server
>> Admin application to Mailman's mm_cfg.py file. An it specialist who helped
>> me review my OS X Server set-up and DNS settings suggested that I should
>> change permissions on this file in order to prevent OS X Server from editing
>> it. He tried changing the permissions on the file to rw-r--r-- but it still
>> didn't work. From my limited knowledge of UNIX and terminal it appears to me
>> that the ownership of the file belongs to -Mailman. Is this right ?
> 
> 
> It doesn't matter what the owner is. Normally, the group is the mailman
> group (_mailman in Mac OS X/Darwin) and the file is group writable. In
> the case of mm_cfg.py, it doesn't need to be writable because Mailman
> doesn't change it, only you do, but it must be readable by the Mailman
> group (_mailman).
> 
> 
>> Can either the permissions or the ownership (and perhaps both) on this file
>> be modified so as to keep OS X Server from editing it ? Could these
>> modifications have any adverse effect on Mailman's behavior or would the
>> program work fine with this file as a read-only file ?
> 
> 
> You could edit it and then chmod it to r--r--r--, and as far as Mailman
> is concerned, it would be OK.

After modifying the file's permissions the system is still able to edit it
and change it back.
 
>> What do you think ?
> 
> 
> I think it won't work because what ever process keeps reverting it is
> probably running as root and can write the file even without explicit
> permission. But, you could try. Presumably, when permissions were
> rw-r--r--, the owner was _mailman, so if the 'reversion' process is
> running as _mailman, changing the permissions to r--r--r-- may work if
> it doesn't cause any harmful side effects to the process doing the
> reversion.

You are right.
 
>> According to the it specialist my set-up and DNS settings are fine. This is
>> a relief. Now I know that the issue is very likely related to Apple's (poor)
>> implementation of Mailman. I know one choice I have is to bypass this
>> bundled version included with OS X Server and install a fresh version of
>> Mailman. However, considering the work and time involved I would prefer, if
>> possible, to work with the version I have and that is already set-up.
>> 
>> What are your thoughts on this matter ?
> 
> If it were me, the first thing I would do is look in all the directories
> 
> ~_mailman/Library/LaunchAgents
> /Library/LaunchAgents
> /Library/LaunchDaemons
> /System/Library/LaunchAgents
> /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
> 
> for any .plist files with mailman in their names (or any files in the
> first directory) to see if I could figure out what process is
> reverting mm_cfg.py and then maybe edit the file to remove the process.
> 
> If that didn't help, I would go to the FAQ at
> <http://wiki.list.org/x/O4A9> and from there to Larry Stone's posts on
> the subject and install Mailman from source. But, first I would be
> sure to back up my lists and archives and completely remove the Apple
> mailman to avoid conflicts and to hopefully keep whatever process is
> reverting your mm_cfg.py from continuing to do it.

I have read the page and also contacted Larry Stone. His instructions are
for installation on OS X client and not OS X Server. I haven't found
instructions on how to remove the Mailman version bundled by Apple with OS X
Server. One of my concerns is that Apple's version and the downloaded
version would both have several (if not all) files installed as default in
the same location and this could lead to potential conflicts.

Are you aware of any instructions on how to remove Mailman (hopefully from
OS X Server) prior to the installation of a new version ?

In case you aren't, do you think it would be a problem to have Mailman
installed in a different location than the default just to avoid possible
conflicts with the pre-existing version ?

Thank you for your help,

Joe