Moving Archive Lists
I had a server blow up on me. It’s dead, Jim, but I have backups of the /usr/local/mailman directory, and I’m attempting to bring it up on a new box with a yum-supplied copy of mailman rather than the old-fashioned hand install.
I’ve got the yum-supplied version configured, and can create new lists. But the old archive lists, in the same directory with the same permissions, are not showing up. The yum-supplied new mailman version is not the same as the version on the old server, and I can’t really bring up the old server without some heroic measures.
Is there some pck database file I need to upgrade or massage to have the old lists be recognized?
Don:
I’m attempting to bring it up on a new box with a yum-supplied copy of mailman rather than the old-fashioned hand install.
Some systems put the configs and so on in a different place from the "standard" mailman install. I infer that you have the right place, but please confirm. On my Debian system, list configs look like
/var/lib/mailman/lists/LISTNAME/config.pck
and I've never seen a system that didn't conform to the .../mailman/lists/LISTNAME/config.pck pattern.
The yum-supplied new mailman version is not the same as the version on the old server,
How old was the old Mailman? AFAIK old configs should automatically be upgraded if necessary when you upgrade Mailman, unless they're very very old (< 2.1.9 at a guess).
But the old archive lists, in the same directory with the same permissions, are not showing up.
Please clarify what you mean by "old archive lists not showing up." What's not showing up? The list archives? The public lists in the mailman/listinfo page in the admin website? It doesn't deliver posts to those lists? More than one of the above (please specify)? Something else?
Is there some pck database file I need to upgrade or massage to have the old lists be recognized?
No, Mailman 2.1 recognizes lists by the presence of a config.pck file in the lists/<list-name> directory. If you have the right place and the version of Mailman that created the configs was not locally modified and not decades old, it should recognize those configs.
HTH
Steve
On 07/21/2014 08:43 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
Way older than that. Even config.db files from Mailman 2.0.x will be properly converted/upgraded. There's even code in Mailman/versions.py, which is what does the work, to address Mailman 1.0 lists, but I won't guarantee it works on 1.0.x or the oldest 2.0.x config.db files but it does the best it can to map things as closely as possible to their current equivalents.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
The old version was 2.12 rc2, so it’s not that old.
list_lists does not pick up the old, archived lists, but does find any new lists created on the new host. Comparing the contents of a list from the old server to one created on the new server:
// contents of list directory from old, crashed host for the list oldList:
[root lists]# ls -lR oldList oldList: total 8 drwxrwsr-x 2 root mailman 4096 May 29 14:10 en -rw-rw-r-- 1 root mailman 24 May 29 14:10 request.pck
oldList/en: total 8 -rw-r--r-- 1 root mailman 5582 May 29 14:10 listinfo.html
// Contents of directory for list, wocka17, created on the new host
[root lists]# ls -lR wocka17 wocka17: total 12 -rw-rw---- 1 mailman mailman 3714 Jul 22 09:00 config.pck -rw-rw---- 1 root mailman 3714 Jul 21 12:05 config.pck.last -rw-rw-r-- 1 root mailman 24 Jul 21 12:05 request.pck
So it looks like I’m missing the config.pck files on the lists from the old host. Did I get a bad backup? The disks eventually blew up on the old host so that’s plausible.
Is there a way to re-generate the config.pck files? And where is the list of subscribers for each list kept?
On 07/22/2014 11:09 AM, McGregor, Donald (Don) (CIV) wrote:
If the config.pck files are missing from your backups, your backups are incomplete.
Is there a way to re-generate the config.pck files? And where is the list of subscribers for each list kept?
Unless you have a custom MemberAdaptor, the list membership is in the config.pck along with all the list attributes. The only way to re-generate it is to create the list, configure it and add the members. There's nowhere else that the information is kept.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
Don:
I’m attempting to bring it up on a new box with a yum-supplied copy of mailman rather than the old-fashioned hand install.
Some systems put the configs and so on in a different place from the "standard" mailman install. I infer that you have the right place, but please confirm. On my Debian system, list configs look like
/var/lib/mailman/lists/LISTNAME/config.pck
and I've never seen a system that didn't conform to the .../mailman/lists/LISTNAME/config.pck pattern.
The yum-supplied new mailman version is not the same as the version on the old server,
How old was the old Mailman? AFAIK old configs should automatically be upgraded if necessary when you upgrade Mailman, unless they're very very old (< 2.1.9 at a guess).
But the old archive lists, in the same directory with the same permissions, are not showing up.
Please clarify what you mean by "old archive lists not showing up." What's not showing up? The list archives? The public lists in the mailman/listinfo page in the admin website? It doesn't deliver posts to those lists? More than one of the above (please specify)? Something else?
Is there some pck database file I need to upgrade or massage to have the old lists be recognized?
No, Mailman 2.1 recognizes lists by the presence of a config.pck file in the lists/<list-name> directory. If you have the right place and the version of Mailman that created the configs was not locally modified and not decades old, it should recognize those configs.
HTH
Steve
On 07/21/2014 08:43 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
Way older than that. Even config.db files from Mailman 2.0.x will be properly converted/upgraded. There's even code in Mailman/versions.py, which is what does the work, to address Mailman 1.0 lists, but I won't guarantee it works on 1.0.x or the oldest 2.0.x config.db files but it does the best it can to map things as closely as possible to their current equivalents.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
The old version was 2.12 rc2, so it’s not that old.
list_lists does not pick up the old, archived lists, but does find any new lists created on the new host. Comparing the contents of a list from the old server to one created on the new server:
// contents of list directory from old, crashed host for the list oldList:
[root lists]# ls -lR oldList oldList: total 8 drwxrwsr-x 2 root mailman 4096 May 29 14:10 en -rw-rw-r-- 1 root mailman 24 May 29 14:10 request.pck
oldList/en: total 8 -rw-r--r-- 1 root mailman 5582 May 29 14:10 listinfo.html
// Contents of directory for list, wocka17, created on the new host
[root lists]# ls -lR wocka17 wocka17: total 12 -rw-rw---- 1 mailman mailman 3714 Jul 22 09:00 config.pck -rw-rw---- 1 root mailman 3714 Jul 21 12:05 config.pck.last -rw-rw-r-- 1 root mailman 24 Jul 21 12:05 request.pck
So it looks like I’m missing the config.pck files on the lists from the old host. Did I get a bad backup? The disks eventually blew up on the old host so that’s plausible.
Is there a way to re-generate the config.pck files? And where is the list of subscribers for each list kept?
On 07/22/2014 11:09 AM, McGregor, Donald (Don) (CIV) wrote:
If the config.pck files are missing from your backups, your backups are incomplete.
Is there a way to re-generate the config.pck files? And where is the list of subscribers for each list kept?
Unless you have a custom MemberAdaptor, the list membership is in the config.pck along with all the list attributes. The only way to re-generate it is to create the list, configure it and add the members. There's nowhere else that the information is kept.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
participants (3)
-
Mark Sapiro -
McGregor, Donald (Don) (CIV) -
Stephen J. Turnbull