[Mailman-Users] Add new list through web

[Gerrit Holl]

gzbigegg wrote on 949881941:
> Hi all,

Hello,

I'm new to this list, I'm going to try to persuade my system
administrator, but Rik van Riel doesn't seem to understand why
he should change Majordomo mailinglists to Mailman mailinglists :(

> I want to let the user add their own list through web interface, I set
> the user id who runs the apache web server to mailman, and re-write the
> 'newlist' function to create a new list using the parameters got from a
> web form.

Can you please configure your mail reader to wrap lines at 80 columns,
or just don't type lines longer than 80 chars? Thanks!

> The 'newlist' function works, I found the new list's name under the
> lists directory. But my problem is how to append the new aliases to
> the '/etc/aliases' file, and run newaliases command. All these tasks
> need the root uid, which I cannot get as mailman user.

> I tried to chmod the /etc/aliases to the group writable or even world
> writable, but newaliases refuses to execute after then. Is there any
> work around to this problem? Or I have to add the new aliases mannually?

It's certainly not needed to add them manually. You'll need to find
a way to run the certain command as root. There are a few ways for
that:

	* You could write an except script (there is a Python Expect
          module, look for it on www.vex.net/parnassus), doing the
          'su -c "command"' and passing the password through. "command"
	  could be another Python script.
	* You could write a little C program running setuid root, and
	  execute that.
	* You could use a program called 'sudo'.

In fact, it's not a Mailman issue, but a Unix issue. Consult a Unix
book or manual for more information, or ask your question on a
Unix mailinglist or newsgroup.

Success!

regards,
Gerrit.