Hello,
Thanks for answering.
If the first private list I could successfully change by making it non-private
also behaved as the 'recalcitrant list' before I did so, then I would suggest
that it's a mailman issue.
My server is one of those shared servers, to which I do not have shell access.
Mailman would have to be reinstalled by the sysadmins -- I can't do it. I
have involved them, but they're still coming up to speed. The only errors I
can find in the error_log files are errors not related to mailman. There is no
python exception.
I attach a copy of the message I sent to the original poster of the error in
2000. The message hasn't yet bounced, but neither have I received an answer.
You must admit, the descriptions are pretty similar, but the trick with making
the list non-private wasn't yet discovered.
Ch.
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen J. Turnbull <turnbull.stephen...@u.tsukuba.ac.jp>
Sent: Wednesday, 5 July 2023 21:12
To: Charles Buckley <c...@buckley.ch>
Cc: mailman-users@python.org
Subject: [Mailman-Users] Mailman 2.1.15 doesn't allow admin changes on private
lists
Charles Buckley writes:
> I experimented with this a bit, and found that I could eliminate > the
> footer on my public (browsable) list on the same server. So I > tried
> converting my other private (non-browsable) list to be > browsable, at
> which point I could eliminate the footer, and then > switch the list back
> to being non-browsable.
>
> But once I tried to implement the workaround on the non-browsable > list I
> wanted to change, I got the same defective behaviour when > trying to
> switch the list to be browsable
Did you test on the second private list *without* changing the "private" flag?
If not, my guess is that the private flag is a red herring, and that there is
some other issue with the recalcitrant list that causes you to get bounced back
to the login page.
Please check the Mailman and webserver logs to see if there is evidence of
errors there. With luck there will be a Python traceback from an exception.
If you're using Apache as the webserver, tracebacks are usually in the
error.log, and there may be a 5xx status in the access.log (I bet not though
since you get served the login page rather than a Server Error page, and that
makes me somewhat pessimistic about finding a traceback in error.log).
> I saw a report of this behaviour on this mailing list from the year > 2000.
If you have an URL for this post, or a timestamp, or even a precise date, it
might be helpful. I can't find it.
> It is still going on now in 2023. One would think that some > information
> on how to workaround this bug would have been found > between now and back
> then.
I rather doubt it's the same bug (but it's worth comparing). Mailman
2.0 was in beta in 2000, and pretty much anything from mail composed by badly
written Japanese MUAs to mail composed by the even less conformant Windows 2000
Outlook betas could crash it. Mailman 2.1 was released in 2006 with a *lot* of
attention to input validation and exception handling, although more on the
email side than the web UI side.
> Note that, when I am able to successfully change a setting, I am > never
> sent back to the list admin login page.
That's expected. My guess is that some content, probably an invisible control
character in a text field in the form (I've seen ^T mentioned more than once,
don't ask me why), is causing the form parser to raise an exception, which
who-knows-why gets caught by the not-logged-in handler. (My guesses are close
to correct about 20% of the time.
Good enough to look there first, but don't bet your car. ;-)
I think all the browsers you mention have developer modes or plugins.
Mailman pages don't have horribly complicated DOMs, so if you want to go
through either the DOM or the page source for the form and see if you can spot
some weird character in one of the fields (likely, but not certainly, the
footer you're trying to change), you might have some luck. Also, "_"
(underscore) may be a "weird character" -- Mailman 3's list importer complains
about footers that contain it.
(Who knows why, I don't think it's weird, but Mailman 3 does kvetch.)
Regards,
Steve
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--- Begin Message ---
Hello Mr. Barton,
20 years later, I am still having the same problem. I didn’t see any answers
in Mailman-Users thread. Did you get any answers direct by private email?
Thanks,
Charles Buckley
<framling> Barton Andras framling at sch.bme.hu
<mailto:mailman-users%40python.org?Subject=%5BMailman-Users%5D%20can%27t%20change%20any%20setting%20on%20the%20/admin%20web%20page&In-Reply-To=>
Fri May 19 18:23:02 CEST 2000
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_____
Hello!
I can not change any setting on my list through the web based control box.
After modifying eg: the header of the list (non digest members) mailman
redirect me to the page where the password has to be entered, and does not
make the change.
Any suggestions?
The other lists running on this server are working well.
Andras Barton
(Hungary)
sziakoszi
framling
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