mailman checks for the installation directories during configury. IMO this wrongly assumes, that
- the build machine is the target machine
- the directories already exist during configuration
- you don't use a temporary installation directory
2.1b2 works ok. Found this while making experimental Debian packages.
Matthias./configure --prefix=/usr/lib/mailman
--with-var-prefix=/var/lib/mailman
--with-username=list
--with-groupname=list
--with-mail-gid=daemon --with-cgi-gid=www-data
creating cache ./config.cache
checking for --with-python... no
checking for python... /usr/bin/python
checking Python interpreter... /usr/bin/python
checking Python version... 2.1.3
checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... yes
checking for true... /bin/true
checking for --without-gcc... no
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler (gcc ) works... yes
checking whether the C compiler (gcc ) is a cross-compiler... no
checking whether we are using GNU C... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking whether #! works in shell scripts... yes
checking for --with-var-prefix... /var/lib/mailman
checking for --with-username... list
checking for list UID... 38
checking for --with-groupname... list
checking for list GID... 38
checking permissions on /var/lib/mailman... configure: error:
***** Installation directory /var/lib/mailman is not configured properly!
***** Directory doesn't exist: /var/lib/mailman
make: *** [configure-stamp] Error 1