Mailman - The GNU Mailing List Management System Copyright (C) 1998,1999,2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA This file contains installation instructions for GNU Mailman, which is configured using the standard GNU autoconf software. You first need to prepare your system as outlined in the sections below, and then configure and install the Mailman software. IMPORTANT: Pay special attention to the step below where you have to set up your crontab entries. If you do not do this, Mailman will not work. UPGRADING: Upgrading is usually as easy as just installing the new version over the existing installation. However, you should read the notes in the file UPGRADING for important information before you upgrade. 0. Installation requirements You must have the Python interpreter installed somewhere on your system. Currently Python 1.5.2 or later is required (Python 2.0 should work fine). For information about obtaining Python source code, RPM packages, or pre-compiled binaries please see: http://www.python.org http://www.pythonlabs.com You must also have an ANSI C compiler in order to build the wrapper programs which are used for improved security. The GNU C compiler gcc 2.8.1 or later is known to work well. For more information about obtaining gcc, see http://www.gnu.org 1. System setup You will need to be root to perform the steps in this section. Before installing the Mailman software, you need to prepare your system by adding certain users and groups. - Add a new user called `mailman'. Typically this is added to your /etc/passwd file. If username `mailman' is already in use, choose something else unique and see the --with-ownername flag below. - Add a new group called `mailman'. Typically this is added to your /etc/group file. The Mailman files will be installed under the `mailman' group, with the set-group-id bit. This is so both the web based and mail based programs will have the proper write permissions. If groupname `mailman' is already in use, choose something else unique and see the --with-ownergroup below. - Create an installation directory (called $prefix in the documentation that follows). All of the Mailman files will be installed under $prefix. Run "configure --help" for ways to split the installation up based on read-only vs. read/write files. The default directory for installing is /home/mailman, but some sites do things like mount /home with the nosuid option. This will break Mailman, which relies on set-gid programs for its security. If this describes your environment, simply install Mailman in a location that allows setgid programs. Make sure this directory is set to group `mailman' (or whatever you're going to specify as --with-ownergroup) and has the setgid bit set (but see README.BSD if you're on a BSD system). You probably also want to guarantee that this directory is readable and executable by everyone. For example, these shell commands will accomplish this: % cd $prefix % chgrp mailman . % chmod a+rx,g+ws . You are now ready to configure and install the Mailman software. 2. Running configure TAKE SPECIAL NOTE OF THE --with-mail-gid AND --with-cgi-gid OPTIONS BELOW. YOU WILL PROBABLY NEED TO USE THESE! You should not be root while performing the steps in this section. Do them under your own login, or whatever account you typically install software as. You do not need to do these steps as user mailman, but you could. Make sure that you have write permissions to the target installation directory, and permission to create a setgid file in the file system where it resides (NFS and other mounts can be configured to inhibit setgid settings). If you've installed other GNU software, you should be familiar with the configure script. Usually you can just cd to the directory you unpacked Mailman into, and run configure with no arguments: % cd mailman- % ./configure % make install The following options allow you to customize your Mailman installation. --prefix= Standard GNU configure option which changes the base directory that Mailman is installed into. By default $prefix is /home/mailman. This directory must already exist, and be set up as described in section 1 above. --exec-prefix= Standard GNU configure option which lets you specify a different installation directory for architecture dependent binaries. --with-var-prefix= Store mutable data under instead of under the prefix or exec_prefix. --with-python= Specify an alternative Python interpreter to use for the wrapper programs. The default is to use the interpreter found first on your shell's $PATH. Note that when running the scripts from the command line, the first Python interpreter found on $PATH is always used. --with-username= Specify a different username than `mailman' to use as a default. Use this only if the username `mailman' is already in use by somebody (e.g. Mark Ailman's login name). Can take an integer user id. Be sure your $prefix directory is owned by this user. --with-groupname= Specify a different groupname than `mailman' to use as a default. Use this only if the groupname `mailman' is already in use. Can take an integer group id. Be sure your $prefix directory is group-owned by this group. --with-mail-gid= Specify an alternative group for running scripts via the mail wrapper. can be a list of one or more integer group ids or symbolic group names. The first value in the list that resolves to an existing group is used. By default, the value is the list `other daemon'. This is highly system dependent and you must get this right, because the group id is compiled into the mail wrapper program for added security. On systems using sendmail, the sendmail.cf configuration file designates the group id of sendmail processes using the "DefaultUser" option. (If commented out, it still may be indicating the default...) --with-cgi-gid= Specify an alternative group for running scripts via the CGI wrapper. can be a list of one or more integer group ids or symbolic group names. The first value in the list that resolves to an existing group is used. By default, the value is the the list `www www-data nobody'. The proper value for this is dependent on your web server configuration. You must get this right, because the group id is compiled into the CGI wrapper program for added security, and no Mailman CGI scripts will run if this is incorrect. If you're using Apache, check the values for the `Group' option in your httpd.conf file. --with-cgi-ext= Specify an extension for cgi-bin programs. The CGI wrappers placed in $PREFIX/cgi-bin will have this extension (some web servers require an extension). must include the dot. --with-gcc=no Don't use gcc, even if it is found. `cc' must be found on your $PATH 3. Check your installation To check that your installation has all the correct permissions and group ownerships, you should run the check_perms script: - cd to $prefix - Run bin/check_perms Don't try to run bin/check_perms from the source directory; it will only run from the install (i.e. $prefix) directory. If this reports no problems, then it's very likely that your installation is set up correctly :) If it reports problems, then you can either fix them manually, re-run the installation, or use check_perms to fix the problems (probably the easiest solution): - You need to become the user that did the installation (and that owns all the files in $prefix), or root. - Run bin/check_perms -f - Repeat previous step until no more errors are reported! 4. Final system set-up Congratulations! You've installed the Mailman software. To get everything running you need to hook Mailman up to both your web server and your mail system. - If you plan on running your MTA and web server on different machines, sharing Mailman installations via NFS, be sure that the clocks on those two machines are synchronized closely. You might take a look at the file Mailman/LockFile.py; the constant CLOCK_SLOP helps the locking mechanism compensate for clock skew in this type of environment. - Configure your web server to give $prefix/cgi-bin permission to run CGI scripts. You probably need to be root to do this. The line you should add might look something like the following (with the real absolute directory substituted for $prefix, of course): Exec /mailman/* $prefix/cgi-bin/* or: ScriptAlias /mailman/ $prefix/cgi-bin/ Consult your web server's documentation for details. - You want to be very sure that the user id under which your CGI scripts run is *not* in the `mailman' group you created above, otherwise private archives will be accessible to anyone. - Copy the Mailman, Python, and GNU logos to a location accessible to your web server. E.g. with Apache, you've usually got an `icons' directory that you can drop the images into. You want to copy $prefix/icons/mailman.jpg, $prefix/icons/PythonPowered.png, and $prefix/icons/gnu-head-tiny.jpg to this directory. You then want to add a line to your $prefix/Mailman/mm_cfg.py file which sets the base URL for the logos. For example: IMAGE_LOGOS = '/images/' The default value for IMAGE_LOGOS is '/icons/'. Read the comment in Defaults.py.in for details. - Configure your web server to point to the Pipermail public mailing list archives: For example, in Apache: Alias /pipermail/ $varprefix/archives/public/ where $varprefix is usually $prefix unless you've used the --with-var-prefix option to configure. Consult your web server's documentation for details. Also be sure to configure your web server to follow symbolic links in this directory, otherwise public Pipermail archives won't be accessible. For Apache users, consult the FollowSymLinks option. Now restart your web server. - IMPERATIVE! IMPORTANT! DO THIS! YOU'LL BE SORRY IF YOU DON'T! Set up the crontab entries. Mailman runs a number of cron jobs for its basic functionality. You need to be user `mailman' (or whatever you specified as --with-ownername) to perform this step. Add $prefix/cron/crontab.in as a crontab entry by executing these commands: % su - mailman % cd $prefix/cron % crontab crontab.in - Look to see if there is special instructions about hooking your MTA up to Mailman. If so, there will be a README. file in the Mailman source directory. - Add aliases for `mailman' and `mailman-owner' to the system's mail alias database. These aliases should point to whoever is ultimately responsible for the Mailman installation. Here are instructions for those running sendmail: 1. su to root. 2. Assuming your email is fred@flintstone.com, add the following lines to the file /etc/aliases: mailman: fred@flintstone.com mailman-owner: mailman 3. Some versions of sendmail require you to run the program 'newaliases' explicitly. If you don't run sendmail, consult the documentation of your mail transport program for information on adding these aliases. 5. Customize Mailman You should do these steps using the account you installed Mailman under in section 2 above. - The file $prefix/Mailman/Defaults.py contains a number of defaults for your installation. If any of these are incorrect, override them in $prefix/Mailman/mm_cfg.py, NOT IN Defaults.py! See the comments in Defaults.py for details. Once a list is created, editing many of these variables will have no effect (you need to configure your lists through the web admin interface or through the command line script bin/config_list). Specifically check to make sure the variables DEFAULT_HOST_NAME and DEFAULT_URL are correct. The latter MUST end in a slash. The install process will not overwrite an existing mm_cfg.py file so you can freely make changes to this file. Note: Do *not* change HOME_DIR or MAILMAN_DIR. These are set automatically by the configure script. - Create the site password using: % $prefix/bin/mmsitepass This password can be used anywhere that individual user or mailing list administrator passwords are required, giving the mailman site administrator the ability to adjust these things when necessary. 6. Getting started - Create a list named `test'. To do so, run the program $prefix/bin/newlist. You will be prompted for the name of the list, as well as the email address of the person running the list. Put your own email address as the list administrator's address. - Running newlist will generate a list of aliases that must be added to the system. If you are running Sendmail, you may add the lines output directly to the file /etc/aliases. You may need to run the command 'newaliases' (all as root). Now the mailing address for your list as well as its administrative addresses will be set up. If you are not running Sendmail, consult your MTA's documentation for information on adding aliases. - You will receive email instructions on how to visit the list you just created. Using these instructions, subscribe to the mailing list. Once you have subscribed (which requires a confirmation step!), send a message to the list, and see if you get it. If so, then you have successfully installed Mailman, and set up your first list! 7. Troubleshooting If you encounter problems with running Mailman, first check the "Common Problems" section, below. If your problem is not covered there, check the file FAQ and FAQ.LINUX. Then check for a log entry from Mailman in your syslog. Where syslog lives on your particular machine may vary. It may be in /var/log/maillog. It may also be in /var/log/syslog. On many machines, syslog files live in /adm/log/ instead of /var/log. If you encounter an error, send an error report to mailman-users@python.org. Include a description of what you're doing to cause the problem, and the relevant lines from your syslog. Also include information on your operating system and version of Python. 8. Common Problems Problem: All Mailman web pages give a 404 File not found error. Solution: Your web server has not been set up properly for handling Mailman's cgi commands. Make sure you've: 1) Configured the web server to give permissions to $prefix/cgi-bin 2) Restarted the web server properly. Consult your web server's documentation for instructions on how to do these things. Problem: All Mailman web pages give an "Internal Server Error". Solution: The likely problem is that you are using the wrong GID or UID for CGI scripts. Check your syslog. If you see, for example, a line like: Attempt to exec script with invalid gid 51, expected 99 You need to reinstall Mailman, and specify $CGI_GID to be 51, as described in the installation instructions. Problem: I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying the list is not found! Solution: You probably didn't add the necessary aliases to the system alias database, given to you when you ran the newlist command. If you did add them, you likely did not update the alias database, or your system requires you to run newaliases explicitly. Refer to section 5 above for more information. Problem: I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying, "unknown mailer error". Solution: The likely problem is that you are using the wrong GID or UID for mail. Check your syslog. If you see, for example, a line like: Attempt to exec script with invalid gid 51, expected 99 You need to reinstall Mailman, and specify $MAIL_GID to be 51, as described in the installation instructions. see notes on Postfix below, as by default it will create these problems on installation. Problem: I use Postfix for my MTA and the mail wrapper programs are logging complaints about the wrong GID. Solution: Create a separate aliases file for Postfix in its main.cf config file under the variable "alias_maps". Put the file somewhere in Mailman's home directory, or somewhere else where the user mailman has write access to it; *as user mailman* call Postfix's "postalias" on the alias file. % postalias Also as user mailman, run % python -c'import os; print os.getgid()' This should print out the group id that Mailman should be configured to expect when the mail wrapper programs are run. Call it "thegid". Rebuild Mailman with % ./configure --with-mail-gid=thegid Problem: I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying, "sh: wrapper not available for sendmail programs" Solution: Your system uses sendmail restricted shell (smrsh). You need to configure smrsh by creating a symbolic link from the mail wrapper ($prefix/mail/wrapper) to the directory identifying executables allowed to run under smrsh. Some common names for this directory are /var/admin/sm.bin, /usr/admin/sm.bin or /etc/smrsh. Note that on Debian Linux, the system makes /usr/lib/sm.bin, which is wrong, you will need to create the directory /usr/admin/sm.bin and add the link there. Note further any aliases newaliases spits out will need to be adjusted to point to the secure link to the wrapper. Problem: I messed up when I called configure. How do I clean things up and re-install? Solution: % make clean % ./configure --with-the-right-options % make install Local Variables: mode: indented-text indent-tabs-mode: nil End: