Mailman 3 December 2008 - Mailman-Users

Questions About 2.1.9 to 2.1.11 Upgrade
by b19141＠anl.gov 19 Dec '08

19 Dec '08

When I upgraded my test Ubuntu system from Mailman 2.1.9 to 2.1.11 I saw messages for each list: Updating mailing list: mailman Updating the held requests database. - updating old private mbox file looks like you have a really recent CVS installation... you're either one brave soul, or you already ran me - updating old public mbox file looks like you have a really recent CVS installation... you're either one brave soul, or you already ran me Fixing language templates: mailman What is updated in the "private mbox file" and the "public mbox file"? I need to know if I need to backup the /var/lib/mailman/archives directory before I convert. I would prefer not to, as the archives are VERY large. I assume that if something drastic goes wrong with the update, then the only recourse is to restore all of the Mailman directories from a tar backup taken just before the conversion. I assume that just re-installing the Mailman 2.1.9 package (that I am currently running) over the 2.1.11 package will not work. Note that these packages are ones I built from the SourceForge source, not the Ubuntu/Debian packages. Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Barry S. Finkel Computing and Information Systems Division Argonne National Laboratory Phone: +1 (630) 252-7277 9700 South Cass Avenue Facsimile:+1 (630) 252-4601 Building 222, Room D209 Internet: BSFinkel(a)anl.gov Argonne, IL 60439-4828 IBMMAIL: I1004994

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Security consequences of adding www user to mailman group
by James Riendeau 19 Dec '08

19 Dec '08

I need to run bin/add_member in our Mailman 2.1.11 list server installation from a cgi/perl script. Normally, it has to run as root. The easy solution was to add the www user to the mailman group. You can then: open(LISTSERVER, '|/usr/local/mailman/bin/add_members -r- '.$list_name); print LISTSERVER $email; close(LISTSERVER); My question is are there any security consequences from adding the Apache2 user to the mailman group I should be aware of. I don't want to inadvertently allow spammers to add themselves to our lists. The cgi script that I'm using is well protected by pubcookie and ip restriction to ensure that only authorized administrators can add new addresses. Thanks, James Riendeau MMI Computer Support Technician Rm. 1541, Dept. of MedMicro 1550 Linden Drive Madison, WI 53706-1521 Phone: (608) 262-3351 After-hours Phone: (608) 260-2696 Fax: (608) 262-8418 Email: jtriende(a)wisc.edu

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Strange address handling
by NFN Smith 19 Dec '08

19 Dec '08

I run an installation of Mailman 2.1.9 installed from the Debian stable branch, and includes Sendmail 8.13.8, and have discovered some quirky handling of user addresses. On occasion, I've had users complain about sending multiple subscription request to a list's -join address, and never getting any response. This happened last week, and with a little checking of logs, I found that what happened is that for some reason, some outbound messages addressed to individual users are getting "-owner" tagged to the username portion of the address. Of course, because the address is invalid, the message bounces. Thus, if I'm hosting a list whose posting address is thislist(a)example.com, and a user whose email address is demouser(a)somewhere.com, the result of sending a subscription to thislist-join(a)example.com generated a reply message that was addressed not to demouser(a)somewhere.com but demouser-owner(a)somewhere.com. This seems to be an intermittent problem. When this particular problem happened, the user submitted subscriptions to nearly a dozen lists, only this one list had a problem -- all the other subscriptions were handled correctly. Also, as far as I can tell, this problem seems to be not specific to subscription responses, nor to this list. A check of my logs indicates a handful of other mis-addressed -owner addresses for regular message traffic. Additionally, a few minutes ago. I was looking at the web interface for my own subscription options to thislist, and found in the the section for requesting a password reminder, the following text: (Note - you are subscribing to a list of mailing lists, so the password notice will be sent to the admin address for your membership, myaddress-owner(a)example.com) I've never seen that one before. I do happen to be the owner of this list. I clicked the button, and the logs indicate that the message was sent to the specified address, and because it's invalid, the message bounced. I also checked subscriptions of several other lists that I own, and none of them shows that note in the subscription options. Any idea of what's going on? NFN Smith -- Be Yourself @ mail.com! Choose From 200+ Email Addresses Get a Free Account at www.mail.com

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Integration with PHP
by Alberto Pereira 18 Dec '08

18 Dec '08

Hi. I'm doing a tiny interface ih PHP for the subscribers of a mailing-list and so that they, through that, can: - subscribe; - unsubscribe; - change digest; ... I'm using the urls for the actions, and all seems working but they change the moderation status of the users. My question is what is the GET variable to change the moderation bit? Thanks, Alberto

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eMailing a members only list from a known location with out verifying members.
by Grant Taylor 18 Dec '08

18 Dec '08

Is it possible to post messages to a members only list with out Mailman validating the sender when posting with a known (specific to this purpose) method? Now for the back story. I am setting up a mailing list that is using a (Usenet) news to email gateway on the news server and having it send / post to a mailing list. I had the system set to accept messages from unknown senders (any one in the world can post to the news group(s)) but messages were still being moderated because Mailman did not see the mailing list in the To: or CC: fields. Thus I had an accident where the mailing list sent moderation messages to lots of people. After wiping all the egg of my face I have given it some thought and I understand why Mailman did what it did. It's just that I want Mailman to not moderate the way that it did when I'm posting messages from the news to email gateway. Is there an option that can be passed to the mm-handler (or comparable) that will tell it to not apply the usual restrictions that probably should be on the mailing list? I am wanting the mailing list to be closed and only be able to post from subscribed members, thus I have an ability to handle abuse if / when it happens. Also, I'm not opposed to configuring the news server / news to email gateway such that it does not use email per say but rather sends messages to Mailman via command line with an option that bypasses the usual sender filtering. Grant. . . .

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bug
by Guilherme Funchal 18 Dec '08

18 Dec '08

Bug in Mailman version 2.1.9 We're sorry, we hit a bug! Help me... -- 'Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes' ============================== Guilherme Funchal da Silva .`. LPI Level 2 Certification

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welcome message
by Joe Damico 18 Dec '08

18 Dec '08

Hello, We would like to make some slight modification to the Mailman welcome message for new subscribers at our location. Where is this message located and if it is in Python code, how do we go about changing the text? Thanks, Joe

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Re: [Mailman-Users] connect to exchange server
by b19141＠anl.gov 17 Dec '08

17 Dec '08

Jeanne Ilchuk <ilchuk(a)wrlc.org> wrote: >Was anything ever developed to allow mailman to work with a microsoft >exchange server ? In what respect? What are you trying to accomplish? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Barry S. Finkel Computing and Information Systems Division Argonne National Laboratory Phone: +1 (630) 252-7277 9700 South Cass Avenue Facsimile:+1 (630) 252-4601 Building 222, Room D209 Internet: BSFinkel(a)anl.gov Argonne, IL 60439-4828 IBMMAIL: I1004994

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Anomalies since upgrading to 2.1.11
by Lindsay Haisley 17 Dec '08

17 Dec '08

I've run into a couple of problems mailman which I can't seem to track down through normal channels. These seem to have appeared at the same time that I upgraded to 2.1.11 from 2.1.9. The most serious problem is that list owners/moderators are no longer receiving notifications of pending subscription requests, possibly also moderation requests (I host few moderated lists). Settings haven't changed, and admin_immed_notify is set to Yes. The listname-owner@listhost address works OK, and email sent explicitly to this address is delivered properly. All list traffic appears to work normally. I have 10442 files in /var/lib/mailman/qfiles/shunt, all of them dating from early last month when I upgraded. I don't know the purpose of this directory, nor what the large number of files here indicates. Starting about the same time, the mailman error log started showing a large number of entries similar to the following, which are continuing as of this date: Nov 07 18:23:16 2008 (1813) SHUNTING: 1226103793.9225979+970f9fe7e0c4b593e7a85af061d0a3293cfbcb08 Nov 07 18:25:20 2008 (1813) Uncaught runner exception: matches_p() takes exactly 3 arguments (2 given) Nov 07 18:25:20 2008 (1813) Traceback (most recent call last): File "/var/gentoo/tmp/portage/net-mail/mailman-2.1.11/image//usr/lib64/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 120, in _oneloop File "/var/gentoo/tmp/portage/net-mail/mailman-2.1.11/image//usr/lib64/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 191, in _onefile File "/var/gentoo/tmp/portage/net-mail/mailman-2.1.11/image//usr/lib64/mailman/Mailman/Queue/IncomingRunner.py", line 130, in _dispose File "/var/gentoo/tmp/portage/net-mail/mailman-2.1.11/image//usr/lib64/mailman/Mailman/Queue/IncomingRunner.py", line 153, in _dopipeline File "/usr/lib64/mailman/Mailman/Handlers/SpamAssassin.py", line 81, in process matches_p(sender, mlist.accept_these_nonmembers): TypeError: matches_p() takes exactly 3 arguments (2 given) I don't know if these problems are related, but any advice will be appreciated. -- Lindsay Haisley | "In an open world, | PGP public key FMP Computer Services | who needs Windows | available at 512-259-1190 | or Gates" | http://pubkeys.fmp.com http://www.fmp.com | |

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A lot of unsubscribes
by Allan Hansen 16 Dec '08

16 Dec '08

Hi all, I recently updated my server from Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.5, with the attendant upgrade of Mailman. Following that, the server suddenly unsubscribed some 300 subscribers from various lists. Is that to be expected or should I resubscribe them? Thanks, Allan -- Allan Hansen P.O Box 2423 Cypress, CA 90630 U.S.A. hansen(a)rc.org +1-714-875-8870

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Mailman-Users December 2008