[Mailman-Users] does ~mailman _REALLY_ need to be (2)775?

[Barry A. Warsaw]

>>>>> "SD" == Soren Dayton <csdayton at cs.uchicago.edu> writes:

    SD> Because I stash sendmail aliases in ~mailman/aliases, I
    SD> _don't_ have the mailman directory (2)775.  But all the
    SD> relevant places (that is, everything _BUT_ ~mailman/aliases).

    SD> Is there some reason that the configure script _HAS TO_ bomb
    SD> out on me (and I have to change the permissions, and sendmail
    SD> has to log to hell and back for 3 minutes, etc.)

Hi Soren,

I'm not sure exactly which permission bits you're objecting to (is it
the set-gid bit?) but once the initial install of the subdirs happens, 
nothing else gets written into ~mailman.

The configure script is anal about the perms on ~mailman because
without this, it was too easy for the install to get screwed.  At
least on Solaris (not sure about Linux), group ownership on subdirs is
only inherited from the parent dir if the set-gid bit is set.  And
before check_perms there was no way to easily fix this problem if your
install was broken.

I think we're justified in making the configure script do the check
because it greatly increases the chances that less experienced people
will get the install correct.  You're experienced enough to figure out
several ways of working around this inconvenience.

-Barry