I've recently spent a fair deal of time integrating mailman with sendmail to automate the creation of alias files. A number of postings to this list were helpful. It's all working now, so I thought my notes may be helpful to speed things up for someone else. I apologise if there are any mistakes or false steps.
Thanks to the Mailman developers and Ed Greenberg To be read in conjunction with the mailman installation instructions at <http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-install/index.htm> and the post by Ed Greenberg at <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2004-June/037518.html> ------------- Step 1 I'm using Apache2, Mailman 2.19 and FreeBSD4 and Python 2.4 ------------- Step 2 As root #adduser I used -> user: mailman, group:mailman, password: n ------------- Step 3 create Installation Directory (as root) su# cd /usr/local/ su# mkdir mailman su# chown mailman mailman su# su mailman su# cd mailman su# chgrp mailnull . su# chmod a+rx,g+ws . ------------- Step 4 Now, go to the directory where you have downloaded mailman su# cd /usr/home/xxxxx/mailman-2.1.9 Change back to user root su# su root You can ascertain the correct option for --with-mail-gid from /etc/ mail/sendmail.cf su# grep "DefaultUser" /etc/mail/sendmail.cf => #O DefaultUser=mailnull So use mailnull su# su root su# make clean su# configure --with-mail-gid=mailnull I'm on FreeBSD so use this command su# make DIRSETGID=: install Now check permissions su# cd /usr/local/mailman su# bin/check_perms -f My webserver runs as nobody (check httpd.conf on your system to confirm) su# grep "User " /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf => User nobody su# cd archives su# chown nobody private su# chmod o-x private ------------- Step 5 Add this to your httpd-vhosts.conf, or httpd.conf depending on which version of Apache you are using <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName lists.practiceimprovement.com.au TransferLog /dev/null DocumentRoot /usr/home/lists/htdocs/ ScriptAlias /mailman/ /usr/local/mailman/cgi-bin/ Alias /pipermail/ /usr/local/mailman/archives/public/ </VirtualHost> and restart apache ------------- Step 6 Integrating sendmail and mailman mm-handler would not work for me (after considerable amount of time trying) - I think because by server was medicine.net.au and the address I wanted to use was practiceimprovement.org.au, even though practiceimprovement.org.au was correctly set up on dns to be delegated to the right server. So I used Ed Greenberg's approach at <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2004-June/037518.html> which seems better to me. Note: On Freebsd I first had to build sudo! create the file /usr/sbin/mailman.aliases c su# pico /usr/bin/mailman.aliases containing the lines below => /bin/cp /usr/local/mailman/data/aliases /etc/mail/mailman.aliases /usr/bin/newaliases Note: I spent a lot of time bugtesting as I used 'cp' in the mailman.aliases script rather than /usr/cp (it worked from the command line but not the web interface) make it executable su# chmod 755 /usr/sbin/mailman.aliases Change your sendmail.cf file to include the new alias file (for me, add this to medicine.net.au.mc) define(`ALIAS_FILE', `/etc/mail/aliases,/etc/mail/mailman.aliases') (and then as root) su# /etc/mail/make install restart Update your sudoers file ('nobody' is the user apache runs under - check your httpd.conf) su# visudo add=> nobody ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/local/sbin/mailman.aliases mailman ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/local/sbin/mailman.aliases ------------- Step 7 my mm_cfg.py has these added DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST = 'practiceimprovement.com.au' DEFAULT_URL_HOST = 'lists.practiceimprovement.com.au' DEFAULT_URL_PATTERN = 'http://%s/mailman/' add_virtualhost(DEFAULT_URL_HOST, DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST) IMAGE_LOGOS = '/images/' MTA='Postfix' POSTFIX_ALIAS_CMD = '/usr/local/bin/sudo /usr/local/sbin/ mailman.aliases' POSTFIX_STYLE_VIRTUAL_DOMAINS = [] Follow the rest of the instructions from step 7 on at -> <http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-install/index.html> ----------------- Testing When you create a list using /bin/newlist, you should find that the file /etc/mail/mailman.aliases has been created / updated. (I had some permissions to sort out in a few directories before it all worked smoothly) The error log is helpful at /usr/local/mailman/logs/error These commands can be helpful for troubleshooting, after you have successfully created a testlist and subscribed yourself to that list To test mailman su# echo "From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Happy New Year test mail body " | /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman post testlist If that works, use this to test your sendmail/mailman integration su# echo "From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Merry Xmas test mail body " | /bin/sendmail [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hope this helps someone and would welcome corrections or improvements. Happy New Year, Tony Lembke ------------------------------------------------------ Mailman-Users mailing list Mailman-Users@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users Mailman FAQ: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/ Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/mailman-users/archive%40jab.org Security Policy: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq01.027.htp
