a picture, and a problem with the Debian package
Hello,
here's a nice picture. The answer is in the mail http://www.flickr.com/photos/82626280@N00/172609494/
More seriously (or, maybe, less), I've spent a few minutes trying to figure out a problem a user was having (on irc). The problem was that she had configured the list to be in Spanish, but it kept sending welcome messages in English. I finally traced it to the Debian installation, which has weird symlinks: /var/lib/mailman/templates -> /etc/mailman
ls -al /etc/mailman/ total 36 drwxr-xr-x 4 root list 4096 2006-04-22 19:46 . drwxr-xr-x 95 root root 8192 2006-06-21 10:41 .. drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2005-10-04 18:17 en drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-02-10 17:46 fr
that's 2 languages only! whereas /usr/share/mailman/ contains all the templates (including es/, which she linked into /etc/mailman/ and solved the problem)
For me, if this is confirmed and not a weird thing on my and her Debian installation, it's a problem that should be solved.
-- Fil
(I'm the currently least inactive maintainer of the Debian package.)
On Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 10:40:49PM +0200, Fil wrote:
The problem was that she had configured the list to be in Spanish, but it kept sending welcome messages in English. I finally traced it to the Debian installation,
When installing the mailman package, you got asked which languages you want that site to support. You didn't include Spanish in the list. Use "dpkg-reconfigure mailman" to change the list. All languages supported by a list on the site are forced on, meaning if you turn them off, they are turned back on in your back.
which has weird symlinks: /var/lib/mailman/templates -> /etc/mailman
Templates can be changed by the administrator and are thus considered as configuration files and are thus in /etc/, as per Debian policy (and Linux FHS). This guarantees that a package upgrade won't override changes the administrator may have made.
whereas /usr/share/mailman/ contains all the templates (including es/, which she linked into /etc/mailman/ and solved the problem)
That linking may or may not confuse the maintainer scripts of the package, I'm not sure. If you want to play it safe, have your user remove that link and use "dpkg-reconfigure mailman".
-- Lionel
When installing the mailman package, you got asked which languages you want that site to support. You didn't include Spanish in the list. Use "dpkg-reconfigure mailman" to change the list. All languages supported by a list on the site are forced on, meaning if you turn them off, they are turned back on in your back.
Why are not all templates installed, instead of only a subset? What happens if Mailman adds a template, or modifies one?
which has weird symlinks: /var/lib/mailman/templates -> /etc/mailman
Templates can be changed by the administrator and are thus considered as configuration files and are thus in /etc/, as per Debian policy (and Linux FHS). This guarantees that a package upgrade won't override changes the administrator may have made.
OK. Why are not the templates in /etc/mailman/templates/ ? I find this a bit confusing
That linking may or may not confuse the maintainer scripts of the package, I'm not sure. If you want to play it safe, have your user remove that link and use "dpkg-reconfigure mailman".
I'll tell her if she comes back on the irc channel :)
Thanks for the explanations
-- Fil
On Fri, Jun 23, 2006 at 02:02:10PM +0200, Fil wrote:
When installing the mailman package, you got asked which languages you want that site to support. You didn't include Spanish in the list. Use "dpkg-reconfigure mailman" to change the list. All languages supported by a list on the site are forced on, meaning if you turn them off, they are turned back on in your back.
Why are not all templates installed, instead of only a subset?
For disk space usage reasons. I think previous versions did that (it was before I became really active in the Debian mailman package). People with tiny root partitions complained loudly, so the current compromise was implemented.
What happens if Mailman adds a template, or modifies one?
If mailman adds a template, you can add it to the supported set with "dpkg-reconfigure mailman". Maybe you'll even be asked on upgrade.
If mailman modifies a template:
If the administrator has not modified the same template, too, then the new mailman template gets installed on upgrade.
If the administrator has modified the same template, the upgrade procedure shows hir the old Mailman template, the new Mailman template, the version that is now in /etc/mailman/XX/foo, diffs between those, etc and asks him what to do (keep what's now in /etc/mailman/XX/foo, install the new mailman template, try to apply the diff between the old and new mailman template to what's now in /etc/mailman/XX/foo, give the administrator a shell to sort it out manually, ...)
which has weird symlinks: /var/lib/mailman/templates -> /etc/mailman
Templates can be changed by the administrator and are thus considered as configuration files and are thus in /etc/, as per Debian policy (and Linux FHS). This guarantees that a package upgrade won't override changes the administrator may have made.
OK. Why are not the templates in /etc/mailman/templates/ ? I find this a bit confusing
/etc/mailman/templates/ would have been a good choice indeed.
-- Lionel
participants (2)
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Fil -
Lionel Elie Mamane