Bug#804436: [Pkg-mlmmj-devel] Bug#804436: mlmmj: installs incorrectly formatted job to /etc/crontab when creating a list
Thomas Goirand: > On 03/24/2016 06:51 AM, Chris Knadle wrote: >> It seems like this package needs a patch to either modify the text output >> concerning the crontab entry or remove it, and I'm not sure which is better. >> I'm considering making a patch an uploading it via a sponsored NMU. >> >> >> Because of the RC bug severity and lack of response, mlmmj has been missing >> from Testing for the last 3-1/2 months. This seems to be an indication that >> the maintainer is too busy for the package, so I'm considering filing an ITA >> to adopt the package. Thomas: this okay with you? >> >>-- Chris > > Hi Chris, > > I'm busy with the packaging of OpenStack indeed, and couldn't take care > much of MLMMJ in time, I'm sorry for that. It happens. Unfortunately I see this happening commonly, so I consider this as part of "the life cycle of a Debian developer" -- and in the back of my mind I'm wondering if/when it'll happen to me. > Instead of just taking over the maintenance, wouldn't you like to join > the MLMMJ packaging group, and package it as a team, still with me? It's > often much better to do this way. If you need sponsored uploads, I can > do that too. A helping hand is always welcome. Sure -- sounds good to me. I'm guessing this involves joining the [pkg-mlmmj] project on Alioth. I'll send a request to join the group. I'm a DM, so after one or two uploads I'd appreciate it if you'd be willing to flip the bit to allow me to upload directly so that I can upload and/or fix issues during times you're too busy to do package review. [We met at DebConf14 + 15 BTW.] > Cheers, > > Thomas Goirand (zigo) > > P.S: It'd be also nice to upgrade to the latest upstream release. They > also accept patch, so if you patch out the message, probably it'd be > better to have this as a build option or something... Yes I've been on the [mlmmj] mailing list for a couple of years as well. I'll notify them about the problem and can send them a patch once I have one ready. -- Chris -- Chris Knadle chris.kna...@coredump.us
Bug#804436: mlmmj: installs incorrectly formatted job to /etc/crontab when creating a list
Phil Reynolds: > On Thu, 24 Mar 2016 05:51:20 + > Chris Knadle wrote: [...] > Hmmm... as I explain below, in my case it merely went ahead and did it. [...] > Just to clarify this, it did not tell me to add the entry, it just went > ahead and did it, on the wheezy setup I used... had it told me to do > it, I'd have spotted the error. The behaviour may have changed between > versions, perhaps. However, as you say, it seems to be unnecessary > anyway. The current version of mlmmj in Wheezy doesn't add an entry to /etc/crontab on its own, and I've been running mlmmj for two years and don't ever recall it doing this either. If mlmmj did do it at some point it could be proven by examining old versions uploaded to Debian via snapshots.debian.org: http://snapshot.debian.org/package/mlmmj/ The two versions of most interest would be the earliest version that shipped with Wheezy, and the earliest version that shipped with Squeeze. Looking at the release dates of Debian vs mlmmj I think that would correspond with 1.2.18.0-2 for Wheezy, and 1.2.17-2 for Squeeze. -- Chris -- Chris Knadle chris.kna...@coredump.us
Bug#804436: mlmmj: installs incorrectly formatted job to /etc/crontab when creating a list
On Thu, 24 Mar 2016 05:51:20 + Chris Knadle wrote: > severity 804436 important > retitle 804436 mlmmj: tells user to add malformed entry > to /etc/crontab thanks Hmmm... as I explain below, in my case it merely went ahead and did it. > However after running '/usr/bin/mlmmj-make-ml -L testlist2 -s > /var/spool/mlmmj -a -c mlmmj' to create a mailing list it outputs the > following text: > >If you're not starting mlmmj-maintd in daemon mode, >don't forget to add this to your crontab: >0 */2 * * * "/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F > -L /var/spool/mlmmj/testlist2/" > > and this is the bug: it tells the admin running the mailing list to > modify /etc/crontab when it's not necessary to do so, and in a way > that will break things. It's not obvious that the cron job added > in /etc/cron.d/mlmmj exists and runs mlmmj-maintd on all mailing > lists as this isn't mentioned in the README.Debian.gz. Furthermore > because it's done as a cron job this would not be considered "daemon > mode" and thus even if the user found this out they still may be > misled into thinking that adding the malformed entry > into /etc/crontab is needed. Just to clarify this, it did not tell me to add the entry, it just went ahead and did it, on the wheezy setup I used... had it told me to do it, I'd have spotted the error. The behaviour may have changed between versions, perhaps. However, as you say, it seems to be unnecessary anyway. -- Phil Reynolds mail: phil-deb...@tinsleyviaduct.com Web: http://phil.tinsleyviaduct.com/
Bug#804436: [Pkg-mlmmj-devel] Bug#804436: mlmmj: installs incorrectly formatted job to /etc/crontab when creating a list
On 03/24/2016 06:51 AM, Chris Knadle wrote: > It seems like this package needs a patch to either modify the text output > concerning the crontab entry or remove it, and I'm not sure which is better. > I'm considering making a patch an uploading it via a sponsored NMU. > > > Because of the RC bug severity and lack of response, mlmmj has been missing > from Testing for the last 3-1/2 months. This seems to be an indication that > the maintainer is too busy for the package, so I'm considering filing an ITA > to adopt the package. Thomas: this okay with you? > >-- Chris Hi Chris, I'm busy with the packaging of OpenStack indeed, and couldn't take care much of MLMMJ in time, I'm sorry for that. Instead of just taking over the maintenance, wouldn't you like to join the MLMMJ packaging group, and package it as a team, still with me? It's often much better to do this way. If you need sponsored uploads, I can do that too. Your thoughts? Cheers, Thomas Goirand (zigo) P.S: It'd be also nice to upgrade to the latest upstream release. They also accept patch, so if you patch out the message, probably it'd be better to have this as a build option or something...
Bug#804436: mlmmj: installs incorrectly formatted job to /etc/crontab when creating a list
severity 804436 important retitle 804436 mlmmj: tells user to add malformed entry to /etc/crontab thanks > I recently moved all of my email setup to a new machine. I installed mlmmj, > and when I created a list, it added the following /line to /etc/crontab: > > 0 */2 * * * "/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -L /var/spool/mlmmj/tvcadmin/" > > This led to another job failing to run - its crontab entry is: > > 1 0 * * * root/usr/local/bin/simplebackup > > The mlmmj-maintd job ran, but the simplebackup job was never started. As for > the other jobs listed, I am unsure whether they ran or not. > > When I amended the mlmmj-maintd job thus, the problem was resolved: > > 0 */2 * * * root/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -L /var/spool/mlmmj/tvcadmin/ > > The problem appears to be that mlmmj creates the crontab entry without > specifying the user name. It should either specify the user name or put the > entry in the user's crontab. I just found this bug the other day when I installed mlmmj on Sid to do some testing and found the bug report by way of how-can-i-help... and I think I've figured out what's going on. mlmmj does not install anything to /etc/crontab -- instead it installs a cronjob at /etc/cron.d/mlmmj that contains this (which works fine): 0 */2 * * * root /usr/bin/test -x /usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd && /usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -d /var/spool/mlmmj This runs mlmmj-maintd every half hour for all mlmmj mailing lists that reside under /var/spool/mlmmj -- meaning that adding separate mlmmj-maintd entries to /etc/crontab is not necessary. However after running '/usr/bin/mlmmj-make-ml -L testlist2 -s /var/spool/mlmmj -a -c mlmmj' to create a mailing list it outputs the following text: If you're not starting mlmmj-maintd in daemon mode, don't forget to add this to your crontab: 0 */2 * * * "/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -L /var/spool/mlmmj/testlist2/" and this is the bug: it tells the admin running the mailing list to modify /etc/crontab when it's not necessary to do so, and in a way that will break things. It's not obvious that the cron job added in /etc/cron.d/mlmmj exists and runs mlmmj-maintd on all mailing lists as this isn't mentioned in the README.Debian.gz. Furthermore because it's done as a cron job this would not be considered "daemon mode" and thus even if the user found this out they still may be misled into thinking that adding the malformed entry into /etc/crontab is needed. It seems like this package needs a patch to either modify the text output concerning the crontab entry or remove it, and I'm not sure which is better. I'm considering making a patch an uploading it via a sponsored NMU. Because of the RC bug severity and lack of response, mlmmj has been missing from Testing for the last 3-1/2 months. This seems to be an indication that the maintainer is too busy for the package, so I'm considering filing an ITA to adopt the package. Thomas: this okay with you? -- Chris -- Chris Knadle chris.kna...@coredump.us
Bug#804436: mlmmj: installs incorrectly formatted job to /etc/crontab when creating a list
Package: mlmmj Version: 1.2.18.1-1+b1 Severity: critical Justification: breaks unrelated software Dear Maintainer, I recently moved all of my email setup to a new machine. I installed mlmmj, and when I created a list, it added the following /line to /etc/crontab: 0 */2 * * * "/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -L /var/spool/mlmmj/tvcadmin/" This led to another job failing to run - its crontab entry is: 1 0 * * * root/usr/local/bin/simplebackup The mlmmj-maintd job ran, but the simplebackup job was never started. As for the other jobs listed, I am unsure whether they ran or not. When I amended the mlmmj-maintd job thus, the problem was resolved: 0 */2 * * * root/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -L /var/spool/mlmmj/tvcadmin/ The problem appears to be that mlmmj creates the crontab entry without specifying the user name. It should either specify the user name or put the entry in the user's crontab. -- System Information: Debian Release: 8.2 APT prefers stable-updates APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/6 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) Versions of packages mlmmj depends on: ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.56 ii exim4 4.84-8 ii exim4-daemon-heavy [mail-transport-agent] 4.84-8 ii libc6 2.19-18+deb8u1 mlmmj recommends no packages. Versions of packages mlmmj suggests: pn mlmmj-php-web pn mlmmj-php-web-admin -- debconf-show failed
