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Hi, I apologize if this is covered somewhere in the FAQ, I must have missed it. I think I am pretty close to getting my first list working but having an issue I just cannot seem to work out on my own. It has to do with postfix not being able to locate the aliases.db and I am getting lots of these in the syslog: fatal: open database /etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db: No such file or directory In looking through the files on my machine, I have an aliases.db under /etc as in /etc/aliases.db and another under /etc/mail/ If I am interpreting the permissions on these aliases.db files, the one under /etc/mail appears to be associated with a smxx account, which I am guessing is Sendmail? The other one, under the root of /etc is associated with the root user. I thought Mailman should have configured aliases for me when I installed it??? In any event, how can I fix this problem? Thanks@! Dov
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Dov Oxenberg wrote:
It has to do with postfix not being able to locate the aliases.db and I am getting lots of these in the syslog: fatal: open database /etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db: No such file or directory
This looks like an error in Postfix's main.cf. It appears you have something like
alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db
or possibly it's
alias_database = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db
In any case, the rhs should be
dbm:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases
(i.e. the delimiter between tables is comma and/or whitespace, not semicolon, and hash references do not include the .db extension).
See <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node12.html> and the "6.1.1 Integrating Postfix and Mailman" page linked from there.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Hi Mark, Thanks for your prompt reply. It seems you are right on target. Below is the relevant data from my main.cf: myhostname = mydomainname.comalias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliasesalias_database = hash:/etc/aliasesmyorigin = /etc/mailnamemydestination = mydomainname.com, localhost.com, localhostrelayhost = mailserver.mydomainname.commynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8mailbox_command = procmail -a "$EXTENSION"mailbox_size_limit = 0recipient_delimiter = +inet_interfaces = 127.0.01alltransport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transportmailman_destination_recipient_limit = 1 Not sure what you mean by "dbm" but my understanding is I should modify the alias_maps variable to "hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases?" What about the alias_database variable? Do I need to add "/etc/mail/" to that as well? Thanks!
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:09:36 -0700> From: mark@msapiro.net> To: boxenberg@hotmail.com; mailman-users@python.org> Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] alias question...> > Dov Oxenberg wrote:> > >It has to do with postfix not being able to locate the aliases.db and I am getting lots of these in the syslog:> >fatal: open database /etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db: No such file or directory> > This looks like an error in Postfix's main.cf. It appears you have> something like> > alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db> > or possibly it's> > alias_database = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db> > In any case, the rhs should be> > dbm:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases> > (i.e. the delimiter between tables is comma and/or whitespace, not> semicolon, and hash references do not include the .db extension).> > > >In looking through the files on my machine, I have an aliases.db under /etc as in /etc/aliases.db and another under /etc/mail/> >If I am interpreting the permissions on these aliases.db files, the one under /etc/mail appears to be associated with a smxx account, which I am guessing is Sendmail? The other one, under the root of /etc is associated with the root user.> >I thought Mailman should have configured aliases for me when I installed it???> >In any event, how can I fix this problem?> > > See <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node12.html> and the "6.1.1> Integrating Postfix and Mailman" page linked from there.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
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Dov Oxenberg wrote:
Not sure what you mean by "dbm" but my understanding is I should modify the alias_maps variable to "hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases?"
'dbm' was an erroneous assumption on my part. You are correct. It should be
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases
What about the alias_database variable? Do I need to add "/etc/mail/" to that as well?
No.
But if you enable Mailman-Postfix integration per <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node13.html>, you will need to add
hash:/usr/local/mailman/data/aliases
(or whatever the correct path is) to alias_maps as discussed in the above reference
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Hi, Actually this is probably the fourth or fifth time I am revisiting "Chapter 6." But I seem to be making better progress now than in my previous attempts. I am at the part where I am trying to make sure data/aliases* have the correct ownership, GID, etc. When I issue "genaliases" it seems to work...at least I get the command prompt back with no reported errors. Then, I try to do "chown mailman:mailman..." and am receiving the error message "chown: cannot access 'data/aliases*' : No such file or directory" I should point out in my installation the path to the mailman bin is /usr/lib/mailman/bin in case that makes any difference. But I thought by running the "genaliases" (from the mailman "bin" directory) the script would create the aliases for me??? Obviously I am mistaken...but what am I doing wrong now???? Thanks!
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:09:36 -0700> From: mark@msapiro.net> To: boxenberg@hotmail.com; mailman-users@python.org> Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] alias question...> > Dov Oxenberg wrote:> > >It has to do with postfix not being able to locate the aliases.db and I am getting lots of these in the syslog:> >fatal: open database /etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db: No such file or directory> > This looks like an error in Postfix's main.cf. It appears you have> something like> > alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db> > or possibly it's> > alias_database = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db> > In any case, the rhs should be> > dbm:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases> > (i.e. the delimiter between tables is comma and/or whitespace, not> semicolon, and hash references do not include the .db extension).> > > >In looking through the files on my machine, I have an aliases.db under /etc as in /etc/aliases.db and another under /etc/mail/> >If I am interpreting the permissions on these aliases.db files, the one under /etc/mail appears to be associated with a smxx account, which I am guessing is Sendmail? The other one, under the root of /etc is associated with the root user.> >I thought Mailman should have configured aliases for me when I installed it???> >In any event, how can I fix this problem?> > > See <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node12.html> and the "6.1.1> Integrating Postfix and Mailman" page linked from there.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
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Dov Oxenberg wrote:
Have you set
MTA = 'Postfix'
in mm_cfg.py? Probably you have since genaliases would report a lot of aliases if it were the default MTA = 'Manual'.
Assuming that you do have MTA = 'Postfix', you need to be in the right directory when you do the chown. This certainly isn't /usr/lib/mailman/bin. It may be /usr/lib/mailman/data, or something else depending on how the Mailman you are installing was configured. The name of the directory id data/ and it will be in whatever was configured as var-prefix which may be /usr/lib/mailman/ or something in /var.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Hi Mark, Not surprisingly you were right on target again :-) And please bear with me as I am relatively new to Linux and I really do try to help myself as much as I can before turning to the list for help. Apparently the target files/folders on my system are under /var/lib/mailman/. So, thanks to your help I have now overcome this hurdle. And yes, I had postfix set as the value for MTA.I am now stepping through all the troubleshooting steps in the mailman FAQ here http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.078.htp as I am not able to see pending requests in the web interface and not receiving mail from the list, any kind of mail (also not seeing the logo images, just the placeholders). What is strange is that in the graphical web based administration interface to my VPS, all the permissions appear set correctly, as far as I know, on /var/lib/mailman because I am seeing list as the group and root as the user on all the directories. As far as the user, list is only on locks and qfiles. When I originally ran check_perms it returned something like 80 "errors" so I ran it again with the -f flag and am now getting 11 errors, but only in the command line! When I again run check_perms -f it still reports back the same 11 "errors" as in: /var/lib/mailman/logs bad group (has: root; expected list) (fixing) and so forth through the remaining 10 directories. I have rebooted the machine but still appear to be stuck in the loop....any ideas??? Thanks again for your indulgence. Dov
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:55:32 -0700> From: mark@msapiro.net> To: boxenberg@hotmail.com> CC: mailman-users@python.org> Subject: Re: RE: [Mailman-Users] alias question...> > Dov Oxenberg wrote:> > Hi,> > Actually this is probably the fourth or fifth time I am revisiting > > "Chapter 6."> > But I seem to be making better progress now than in my previous attempts.> > I am at the part where I am trying to make sure data/aliases* have the > > correct ownership, GID, etc. When I issue "genaliases" it seems to > > work...at least I get the command prompt back with no reported errors. > > Then, I try to do "chown mailman:mailman..." and am receiving the error > > message "chown: cannot access 'data/aliases*' : No such file or directory"> > > Have you set> > MTA = 'Postfix'> > in mm_cfg.py? Probably you have since genaliases would report a lot of > aliases if it were the default MTA = 'Manual'.> > > > I should point out in my installation the path to the mailman bin is > > /usr/lib/mailman/bin in case that makes any difference. But I thought > > by running the "genaliases" (from the mailman "bin" directory) the > > script would create the aliases for me??? Obviously I am mistaken...but > > what am I doing wrong now????> > > Assuming that you do have MTA = 'Postfix', you need to be in the right > directory when you do the chown. This certainly isn't > /usr/lib/mailman/bin. It may be /usr/lib/mailman/data, or something else > depending on how the Mailman you are installing was configured. The > name of the directory id data/ and it will be in whatever was configured > as var-prefix which may be /usr/lib/mailman/ or something in /var.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
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Dov Oxenberg wrote:
Did you add hash:/var/lib/mailman/date/aliases to the alias_maps setting in your Postfix main.cf?
I have no idea why your file management GUI would show you one thing and check_perms something else. what does command line "ls -l" show?
Are you running check_perms as root? If so, and for whatever reason, check_perms doesn't fix it, you can always do
chgrp list /var/lib/mailman/*
Also, if your Mailman user:group is list:list, that is what you should set the user:group of /var/lib/mailman/data/aliases* to.
See the section just below the warning box at <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node10.html> for some information on icons, although the default setting IMAGE_LOGOS = '/icons/' seems to be correct for many apache installations.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Here is the line from my main.cf: alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases, hash:/var/lib/mailman/data/aliases The results of my ls -l, which by the way I had looked at earlier also and neglected to mention, are illustrated in the attached screen shot. I see the system thinks the group membership is root rather than list, is that about right? Yes, I am logged in as root both in the gui and ssh. Ok, this is just too weird...I did chgrp etc. and then ls -l again and it it made no difference, group membership did not get changed. Well, as was said, "...the game is afoot Watson...." Have to look into this and figure out what is going on. Thanks again for your help! Dov
Did you add hash:/var/lib/mailman/date/aliases to the alias_maps setting > in your Postfix main.cf?> > > > > I have no idea why your file management GUI would show you one thing and > check_perms something else. what does command line "ls -l" show?> > Are you running check_perms as root? If so, and for whatever reason, > check_perms doesn't fix it, you can always do> > chgrp list /var/lib/mailman/*> > Also, if your Mailman user:group is list:list, that is what you should > set the user:group of /var/lib/mailman/data/aliases* to.> > See the section just below the warning box at > <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node10.html> for some information > on icons, although the default setting IMAGE_LOGOS = '/icons/' seems to > be correct for many apache installations.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
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Dov Oxenberg wrote:
[Note: the screenshot was output from ls -l of /var/lib/mailman showing 7 actual subdirectories and 11 symlinks to to directories in other places.]
The /var/lib/mailman/* things whose ownership you can't change are symlinks to other directories. The fact that chgrp doesn't 'work' is normal because it changes the group of the target, not that of the symlink itself.
This is an unusual way of installing Mailman, but it should be OK. You can just ignore the errors from check_perms in this case. But, this all indicates your Mailman is an unusual package, so our installation manual, FAQ, etc. may not be completely relevant.
The real issue appears to be the fact that there is a /var/lib/mailman/messages directory, and it appears from its link count to have 32 subdirectories. This suggests that your package might be setup to use Mailman's 'Maildir' delivery instead of aliases (but again in a non-standard way). I'm guessing that that's where your messages are, and MaildirRunner or whatever is supposed to process them on the Mailman side is not running.
You need to do one of two things. Either, go to documentation and support resources specific to your OS and Mailman package for help, or rip it all out and install a standard Mailman distribution.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Hi, I think I just spent too long in front of the computer yesterday :-) Under /var/lib/mailman/messages folder are directories with what appear to be country abbreviations? For example, under /var/lib/mailman/messages/eu/ there is a folder called LC_Messages, and under that two files, mailman.mo and mailman.po I am not 100% positive, but I could swear I installed mailman by running configure>make>make install I would think that should have compiled a build based on my system specific configuration? On the other hand it is entirely possible, in fact probably likely <g>, I either fudged something when I ran configure or provided some value at some point I should not have. Thanks, Dov
The real issue appears to be the fact that there is a > /var/lib/mailman/messages directory, and it appears from its link count > to have 32 subdirectories. This suggests that your package might be > setup to use Mailman's 'Maildir' delivery instead of aliases (but again > in a non-standard way). I'm guessing that that's where your messages > are, and MaildirRunner or whatever is supposed to process them on the > Mailman side is not running.> > You need to do one of two things. Either, go to documentation and > support resources specific to your OS and Mailman package for help, or > rip it all out and install a standard Mailman distribution.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/56f108518d7ee2544412cc80978e3182.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Dov Oxenberg wrote:
I think I just spent too long in front of the computer yesterday :-) Under /var/lib/mailman/messages folder are directories with what appear to be country abbreviations?
No. It is I who spent too much time doing whatever. The messages/ directory has nothing to do with Maildir. It is the normal localization message catalog. Ignore everything in my prior post about Maildir.
I am not 100% positive, but I could swear I installed mailman by running configure>make>make install
That process would not have created all those /var/lib/mailman symlinks nor would it have put the locks and logs directories in /var/lock/mailman and /var/log/mailman unless the package you configured was non-standard to begin with.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0c1680fa9898e941cac9f3c4648f4b61.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
No worries...Alright well, I have kept digging and in examining the mail.log file I see postfix is refusing SMTP connections which may explain why I am not seeing the pending requests. And I also see the welcome messages to the members I manually subscribed (mass subscribe for the web UI) trying to go out but my local mail server is refusing the connection attempt.... So it seems it is really a postfix problem I am dealing with...at least that is the way it looks. Will investigate further and let you know what I come up with. Regards, Dov > No. It is I who spent too much time doing whatever. The messages/> directory has nothing to do with Maildir. It is the normal> localization message catalog. Ignore everything in my prior post about> Maildir.> > > >I am not 100% positive, but I could swear I installed mailman by running configure>make>make install> > > That process would not have created all those /var/lib/mailman symlinks> nor would it have put the locks and logs directories in> /var/lock/mailman and /var/log/mailman unless the package you> configured was non-standard to begin with.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0c1680fa9898e941cac9f3c4648f4b61.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Before I go on a wild goose chase...here are the contents of my master.cf file - does this look normal? What I mean is, does it appear as though I am missing anything?
# # Postfix master process configuration file. For details on the format # of the file, see the master(5) manual page (command: "man 5 master"). # # ========================================================================== # service type private unpriv chroot wakeup maxproc command + args # (yes) (yes) (yes) (never) (100) # ========================================================================== smtp inet n - - - - smtpd #submission inet n - - - - smtpd # -o smtpd_enforce_tls=yes # -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes # -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject #smtps inet n - - - - smtpd # -o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes # -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes # -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject #628 inet n - - - - qmqpd pickup fifo n - - 60 1 pickup cleanup unix n - - - 0 cleanup qmgr fifo n - n 300 1 qmgr #qmgr fifo n - - 300 1 oqmgr tlsmgr unix - - - 1000? 1 tlsmgr rewrite unix - - - - - trivial-rewrite bounce unix - - - - 0 bounce defer unix - - - - 0 bounce trace unix - - - - 0 bounce verify unix - - - - 1 verify flush unix n - - 1000? 0 flush proxymap unix - - n - - proxymap smtp unix - - - - - smtp # When relaying mail as backup MX, disable fallback_relay to avoid MX loops relay unix - - - - - smtp -o fallback_relay= # -o smtp_helo_timeout=5 -o smtp_connect_timeout=5 showq unix n - - - - showq error unix - - - - - error discard unix - - - - - discard local unix - n n - - local virtual unix - n n - - virtual lmtp unix - - - - - lmtp anvil unix - - - - 1 anvil scache unix - - - - 1 scache # # ==================================================================== # Interfaces to non-Postfix software. Be sure to examine the manual # pages of the non-Postfix software to find out what options it wants. # # Many of the following services use the Postfix pipe(8) delivery # agent. See the pipe(8) man page for information about ${recipient} # and other message envelope options. # ==================================================================== # # maildrop. See the Postfix MAILDROP_README file for details. # Also specify in main.cf: maildrop_destination_recipient_limit=1 # maildrop unix - n n - - pipe flags=DRhu user=vmail argv=/usr/bin/maildrop -d ${recipient} # # See the Postfix UUCP_README file for configuration details. # uucp unix - n n - - pipe flags=Fqhu user=uucp argv=uux -r -n -z -a$sender - $nexthop!rmail ($recipient) # # Other external delivery methods. # ifmail unix - n n - - pipe flags=F user=ftn argv=/usr/lib/ifmail/ifmail -r $nexthop ($recipient) bsmtp unix - n n - - pipe flags=Fq. user=bsmtp argv=/usr/lib/bsmtp/bsmtp -t$nexthop -f$sender $recipient scalemail-backend unix - n n - 2 pipe flags=R user=scalemail argv=/usr/lib/scalemail/bin/scalemail-store ${nexthop} ${user} ${extension} mailman unix - n n - - pipe flags=FR user=list argv=/usr/lib/mailman/bin/postfix-to-mailman.py ${nexthop} ${user}
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/56f108518d7ee2544412cc80978e3182.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Dov Oxenberg wrote:
Well I have chroot 'n' on the above and other entries, but I don't think that's the problem.
In an earlier post where you indicated your main.cf settings, you had
inet_interfaces = 127.0.01all
At the time, I thought this was a result of hotmail garbling your message, but perhaps it's not and that's the problem. If you have
inet_interfaces = all
that should be sufficient to accept mail from anywhere, or you could have a list of IP addresses including 127.0.0.1 which will allow you to send mail plus your incoming addresses. Even
inet_interfaces = 127.0.0.1 all
would work although the 127.0.0.1 is redundant in this case, but if you have 127.0.01all with no whitespace preceding 'all', I think that's your problem.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b14265758ebb7c583c9f49d8e412ad63.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
I ran into the same problem with postfix and mailman-2.1.9-r3 on Gentoo. You are already on a wild goose chase. But that master.cf seems good. Check your postfix logs for
[local] fatal: execvp /usr/lib/mailman/mail/mailman: Permission denied
reverting to gentoo's 2.1.9 did nothing. chmod does nothing. I think my problem may be a postfix setgid problem but is more likely a more complicated system problem.
I'm solving the problem with new iron and something other than my current MTA and OS.
Dov Oxenberg wrote:
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/56f108518d7ee2544412cc80978e3182.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Dov Oxenberg wrote:
It has to do with postfix not being able to locate the aliases.db and I am getting lots of these in the syslog: fatal: open database /etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db: No such file or directory
This looks like an error in Postfix's main.cf. It appears you have something like
alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db
or possibly it's
alias_database = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db
In any case, the rhs should be
dbm:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases
(i.e. the delimiter between tables is comma and/or whitespace, not semicolon, and hash references do not include the .db extension).
See <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node12.html> and the "6.1.1 Integrating Postfix and Mailman" page linked from there.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Hi Mark, Thanks for your prompt reply. It seems you are right on target. Below is the relevant data from my main.cf: myhostname = mydomainname.comalias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliasesalias_database = hash:/etc/aliasesmyorigin = /etc/mailnamemydestination = mydomainname.com, localhost.com, localhostrelayhost = mailserver.mydomainname.commynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8mailbox_command = procmail -a "$EXTENSION"mailbox_size_limit = 0recipient_delimiter = +inet_interfaces = 127.0.01alltransport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transportmailman_destination_recipient_limit = 1 Not sure what you mean by "dbm" but my understanding is I should modify the alias_maps variable to "hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases?" What about the alias_database variable? Do I need to add "/etc/mail/" to that as well? Thanks!
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:09:36 -0700> From: mark@msapiro.net> To: boxenberg@hotmail.com; mailman-users@python.org> Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] alias question...> > Dov Oxenberg wrote:> > >It has to do with postfix not being able to locate the aliases.db and I am getting lots of these in the syslog:> >fatal: open database /etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db: No such file or directory> > This looks like an error in Postfix's main.cf. It appears you have> something like> > alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db> > or possibly it's> > alias_database = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db> > In any case, the rhs should be> > dbm:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases> > (i.e. the delimiter between tables is comma and/or whitespace, not> semicolon, and hash references do not include the .db extension).> > > >In looking through the files on my machine, I have an aliases.db under /etc as in /etc/aliases.db and another under /etc/mail/> >If I am interpreting the permissions on these aliases.db files, the one under /etc/mail appears to be associated with a smxx account, which I am guessing is Sendmail? The other one, under the root of /etc is associated with the root user.> >I thought Mailman should have configured aliases for me when I installed it???> >In any event, how can I fix this problem?> > > See <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node12.html> and the "6.1.1> Integrating Postfix and Mailman" page linked from there.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
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Dov Oxenberg wrote:
Not sure what you mean by "dbm" but my understanding is I should modify the alias_maps variable to "hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases?"
'dbm' was an erroneous assumption on my part. You are correct. It should be
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases
What about the alias_database variable? Do I need to add "/etc/mail/" to that as well?
No.
But if you enable Mailman-Postfix integration per <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node13.html>, you will need to add
hash:/usr/local/mailman/data/aliases
(or whatever the correct path is) to alias_maps as discussed in the above reference
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0c1680fa9898e941cac9f3c4648f4b61.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Hi, Actually this is probably the fourth or fifth time I am revisiting "Chapter 6." But I seem to be making better progress now than in my previous attempts. I am at the part where I am trying to make sure data/aliases* have the correct ownership, GID, etc. When I issue "genaliases" it seems to work...at least I get the command prompt back with no reported errors. Then, I try to do "chown mailman:mailman..." and am receiving the error message "chown: cannot access 'data/aliases*' : No such file or directory" I should point out in my installation the path to the mailman bin is /usr/lib/mailman/bin in case that makes any difference. But I thought by running the "genaliases" (from the mailman "bin" directory) the script would create the aliases for me??? Obviously I am mistaken...but what am I doing wrong now???? Thanks!
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:09:36 -0700> From: mark@msapiro.net> To: boxenberg@hotmail.com; mailman-users@python.org> Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] alias question...> > Dov Oxenberg wrote:> > >It has to do with postfix not being able to locate the aliases.db and I am getting lots of these in the syslog:> >fatal: open database /etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db: No such file or directory> > This looks like an error in Postfix's main.cf. It appears you have> something like> > alias_maps = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db> > or possibly it's> > alias_database = dbm:/etc/aliases;hash:/etc/mail/aliases.db> > In any case, the rhs should be> > dbm:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases> > (i.e. the delimiter between tables is comma and/or whitespace, not> semicolon, and hash references do not include the .db extension).> > > >In looking through the files on my machine, I have an aliases.db under /etc as in /etc/aliases.db and another under /etc/mail/> >If I am interpreting the permissions on these aliases.db files, the one under /etc/mail appears to be associated with a smxx account, which I am guessing is Sendmail? The other one, under the root of /etc is associated with the root user.> >I thought Mailman should have configured aliases for me when I installed it???> >In any event, how can I fix this problem?> > > See <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node12.html> and the "6.1.1> Integrating Postfix and Mailman" page linked from there.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
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Dov Oxenberg wrote:
Have you set
MTA = 'Postfix'
in mm_cfg.py? Probably you have since genaliases would report a lot of aliases if it were the default MTA = 'Manual'.
Assuming that you do have MTA = 'Postfix', you need to be in the right directory when you do the chown. This certainly isn't /usr/lib/mailman/bin. It may be /usr/lib/mailman/data, or something else depending on how the Mailman you are installing was configured. The name of the directory id data/ and it will be in whatever was configured as var-prefix which may be /usr/lib/mailman/ or something in /var.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Hi Mark, Not surprisingly you were right on target again :-) And please bear with me as I am relatively new to Linux and I really do try to help myself as much as I can before turning to the list for help. Apparently the target files/folders on my system are under /var/lib/mailman/. So, thanks to your help I have now overcome this hurdle. And yes, I had postfix set as the value for MTA.I am now stepping through all the troubleshooting steps in the mailman FAQ here http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.078.htp as I am not able to see pending requests in the web interface and not receiving mail from the list, any kind of mail (also not seeing the logo images, just the placeholders). What is strange is that in the graphical web based administration interface to my VPS, all the permissions appear set correctly, as far as I know, on /var/lib/mailman because I am seeing list as the group and root as the user on all the directories. As far as the user, list is only on locks and qfiles. When I originally ran check_perms it returned something like 80 "errors" so I ran it again with the -f flag and am now getting 11 errors, but only in the command line! When I again run check_perms -f it still reports back the same 11 "errors" as in: /var/lib/mailman/logs bad group (has: root; expected list) (fixing) and so forth through the remaining 10 directories. I have rebooted the machine but still appear to be stuck in the loop....any ideas??? Thanks again for your indulgence. Dov
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:55:32 -0700> From: mark@msapiro.net> To: boxenberg@hotmail.com> CC: mailman-users@python.org> Subject: Re: RE: [Mailman-Users] alias question...> > Dov Oxenberg wrote:> > Hi,> > Actually this is probably the fourth or fifth time I am revisiting > > "Chapter 6."> > But I seem to be making better progress now than in my previous attempts.> > I am at the part where I am trying to make sure data/aliases* have the > > correct ownership, GID, etc. When I issue "genaliases" it seems to > > work...at least I get the command prompt back with no reported errors. > > Then, I try to do "chown mailman:mailman..." and am receiving the error > > message "chown: cannot access 'data/aliases*' : No such file or directory"> > > Have you set> > MTA = 'Postfix'> > in mm_cfg.py? Probably you have since genaliases would report a lot of > aliases if it were the default MTA = 'Manual'.> > > > I should point out in my installation the path to the mailman bin is > > /usr/lib/mailman/bin in case that makes any difference. But I thought > > by running the "genaliases" (from the mailman "bin" directory) the > > script would create the aliases for me??? Obviously I am mistaken...but > > what am I doing wrong now????> > > Assuming that you do have MTA = 'Postfix', you need to be in the right > directory when you do the chown. This certainly isn't > /usr/lib/mailman/bin. It may be /usr/lib/mailman/data, or something else > depending on how the Mailman you are installing was configured. The > name of the directory id data/ and it will be in whatever was configured > as var-prefix which may be /usr/lib/mailman/ or something in /var.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
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Dov Oxenberg wrote:
Did you add hash:/var/lib/mailman/date/aliases to the alias_maps setting in your Postfix main.cf?
I have no idea why your file management GUI would show you one thing and check_perms something else. what does command line "ls -l" show?
Are you running check_perms as root? If so, and for whatever reason, check_perms doesn't fix it, you can always do
chgrp list /var/lib/mailman/*
Also, if your Mailman user:group is list:list, that is what you should set the user:group of /var/lib/mailman/data/aliases* to.
See the section just below the warning box at <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node10.html> for some information on icons, although the default setting IMAGE_LOGOS = '/icons/' seems to be correct for many apache installations.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Here is the line from my main.cf: alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/etc/mail/aliases, hash:/var/lib/mailman/data/aliases The results of my ls -l, which by the way I had looked at earlier also and neglected to mention, are illustrated in the attached screen shot. I see the system thinks the group membership is root rather than list, is that about right? Yes, I am logged in as root both in the gui and ssh. Ok, this is just too weird...I did chgrp etc. and then ls -l again and it it made no difference, group membership did not get changed. Well, as was said, "...the game is afoot Watson...." Have to look into this and figure out what is going on. Thanks again for your help! Dov
Did you add hash:/var/lib/mailman/date/aliases to the alias_maps setting > in your Postfix main.cf?> > > > > I have no idea why your file management GUI would show you one thing and > check_perms something else. what does command line "ls -l" show?> > Are you running check_perms as root? If so, and for whatever reason, > check_perms doesn't fix it, you can always do> > chgrp list /var/lib/mailman/*> > Also, if your Mailman user:group is list:list, that is what you should > set the user:group of /var/lib/mailman/data/aliases* to.> > See the section just below the warning box at > <http://www.list.org/mailman-install/node10.html> for some information > on icons, although the default setting IMAGE_LOGOS = '/icons/' seems to > be correct for many apache installations.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
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Dov Oxenberg wrote:
[Note: the screenshot was output from ls -l of /var/lib/mailman showing 7 actual subdirectories and 11 symlinks to to directories in other places.]
The /var/lib/mailman/* things whose ownership you can't change are symlinks to other directories. The fact that chgrp doesn't 'work' is normal because it changes the group of the target, not that of the symlink itself.
This is an unusual way of installing Mailman, but it should be OK. You can just ignore the errors from check_perms in this case. But, this all indicates your Mailman is an unusual package, so our installation manual, FAQ, etc. may not be completely relevant.
The real issue appears to be the fact that there is a /var/lib/mailman/messages directory, and it appears from its link count to have 32 subdirectories. This suggests that your package might be setup to use Mailman's 'Maildir' delivery instead of aliases (but again in a non-standard way). I'm guessing that that's where your messages are, and MaildirRunner or whatever is supposed to process them on the Mailman side is not running.
You need to do one of two things. Either, go to documentation and support resources specific to your OS and Mailman package for help, or rip it all out and install a standard Mailman distribution.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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Hi, I think I just spent too long in front of the computer yesterday :-) Under /var/lib/mailman/messages folder are directories with what appear to be country abbreviations? For example, under /var/lib/mailman/messages/eu/ there is a folder called LC_Messages, and under that two files, mailman.mo and mailman.po I am not 100% positive, but I could swear I installed mailman by running configure>make>make install I would think that should have compiled a build based on my system specific configuration? On the other hand it is entirely possible, in fact probably likely <g>, I either fudged something when I ran configure or provided some value at some point I should not have. Thanks, Dov
The real issue appears to be the fact that there is a > /var/lib/mailman/messages directory, and it appears from its link count > to have 32 subdirectories. This suggests that your package might be > setup to use Mailman's 'Maildir' delivery instead of aliases (but again > in a non-standard way). I'm guessing that that's where your messages > are, and MaildirRunner or whatever is supposed to process them on the > Mailman side is not running.> > You need to do one of two things. Either, go to documentation and > support resources specific to your OS and Mailman package for help, or > rip it all out and install a standard Mailman distribution.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/56f108518d7ee2544412cc80978e3182.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Dov Oxenberg wrote:
I think I just spent too long in front of the computer yesterday :-) Under /var/lib/mailman/messages folder are directories with what appear to be country abbreviations?
No. It is I who spent too much time doing whatever. The messages/ directory has nothing to do with Maildir. It is the normal localization message catalog. Ignore everything in my prior post about Maildir.
I am not 100% positive, but I could swear I installed mailman by running configure>make>make install
That process would not have created all those /var/lib/mailman symlinks nor would it have put the locks and logs directories in /var/lock/mailman and /var/log/mailman unless the package you configured was non-standard to begin with.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0c1680fa9898e941cac9f3c4648f4b61.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
No worries...Alright well, I have kept digging and in examining the mail.log file I see postfix is refusing SMTP connections which may explain why I am not seeing the pending requests. And I also see the welcome messages to the members I manually subscribed (mass subscribe for the web UI) trying to go out but my local mail server is refusing the connection attempt.... So it seems it is really a postfix problem I am dealing with...at least that is the way it looks. Will investigate further and let you know what I come up with. Regards, Dov > No. It is I who spent too much time doing whatever. The messages/> directory has nothing to do with Maildir. It is the normal> localization message catalog. Ignore everything in my prior post about> Maildir.> > > >I am not 100% positive, but I could swear I installed mailman by running configure>make>make install> > > That process would not have created all those /var/lib/mailman symlinks> nor would it have put the locks and logs directories in> /var/lock/mailman and /var/log/mailman unless the package you> configured was non-standard to begin with.> > -- > Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers,> San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan>
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0c1680fa9898e941cac9f3c4648f4b61.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Before I go on a wild goose chase...here are the contents of my master.cf file - does this look normal? What I mean is, does it appear as though I am missing anything?
# # Postfix master process configuration file. For details on the format # of the file, see the master(5) manual page (command: "man 5 master"). # # ========================================================================== # service type private unpriv chroot wakeup maxproc command + args # (yes) (yes) (yes) (never) (100) # ========================================================================== smtp inet n - - - - smtpd #submission inet n - - - - smtpd # -o smtpd_enforce_tls=yes # -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes # -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject #smtps inet n - - - - smtpd # -o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes # -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes # -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject #628 inet n - - - - qmqpd pickup fifo n - - 60 1 pickup cleanup unix n - - - 0 cleanup qmgr fifo n - n 300 1 qmgr #qmgr fifo n - - 300 1 oqmgr tlsmgr unix - - - 1000? 1 tlsmgr rewrite unix - - - - - trivial-rewrite bounce unix - - - - 0 bounce defer unix - - - - 0 bounce trace unix - - - - 0 bounce verify unix - - - - 1 verify flush unix n - - 1000? 0 flush proxymap unix - - n - - proxymap smtp unix - - - - - smtp # When relaying mail as backup MX, disable fallback_relay to avoid MX loops relay unix - - - - - smtp -o fallback_relay= # -o smtp_helo_timeout=5 -o smtp_connect_timeout=5 showq unix n - - - - showq error unix - - - - - error discard unix - - - - - discard local unix - n n - - local virtual unix - n n - - virtual lmtp unix - - - - - lmtp anvil unix - - - - 1 anvil scache unix - - - - 1 scache # # ==================================================================== # Interfaces to non-Postfix software. Be sure to examine the manual # pages of the non-Postfix software to find out what options it wants. # # Many of the following services use the Postfix pipe(8) delivery # agent. See the pipe(8) man page for information about ${recipient} # and other message envelope options. # ==================================================================== # # maildrop. See the Postfix MAILDROP_README file for details. # Also specify in main.cf: maildrop_destination_recipient_limit=1 # maildrop unix - n n - - pipe flags=DRhu user=vmail argv=/usr/bin/maildrop -d ${recipient} # # See the Postfix UUCP_README file for configuration details. # uucp unix - n n - - pipe flags=Fqhu user=uucp argv=uux -r -n -z -a$sender - $nexthop!rmail ($recipient) # # Other external delivery methods. # ifmail unix - n n - - pipe flags=F user=ftn argv=/usr/lib/ifmail/ifmail -r $nexthop ($recipient) bsmtp unix - n n - - pipe flags=Fq. user=bsmtp argv=/usr/lib/bsmtp/bsmtp -t$nexthop -f$sender $recipient scalemail-backend unix - n n - 2 pipe flags=R user=scalemail argv=/usr/lib/scalemail/bin/scalemail-store ${nexthop} ${user} ${extension} mailman unix - n n - - pipe flags=FR user=list argv=/usr/lib/mailman/bin/postfix-to-mailman.py ${nexthop} ${user}
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/56f108518d7ee2544412cc80978e3182.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Dov Oxenberg wrote:
Well I have chroot 'n' on the above and other entries, but I don't think that's the problem.
In an earlier post where you indicated your main.cf settings, you had
inet_interfaces = 127.0.01all
At the time, I thought this was a result of hotmail garbling your message, but perhaps it's not and that's the problem. If you have
inet_interfaces = all
that should be sufficient to accept mail from anywhere, or you could have a list of IP addresses including 127.0.0.1 which will allow you to send mail plus your incoming addresses. Even
inet_interfaces = 127.0.0.1 all
would work although the 127.0.0.1 is redundant in this case, but if you have 127.0.01all with no whitespace preceding 'all', I think that's your problem.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b14265758ebb7c583c9f49d8e412ad63.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
I ran into the same problem with postfix and mailman-2.1.9-r3 on Gentoo. You are already on a wild goose chase. But that master.cf seems good. Check your postfix logs for
[local] fatal: execvp /usr/lib/mailman/mail/mailman: Permission denied
reverting to gentoo's 2.1.9 did nothing. chmod does nothing. I think my problem may be a postfix setgid problem but is more likely a more complicated system problem.
I'm solving the problem with new iron and something other than my current MTA and OS.
Dov Oxenberg wrote:
participants (3)
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Dov Oxenberg
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Mark Sapiro
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RVaughn