[Mailman-Users] Moving mailman to a new machine

[Ed Wilts]

On Thursday 14 June 2001 08:39 am, Gedaliah Wolosh wrote:

> I need to move mailman to a new machine.  Is there any reason I can't just
> tar up the mailman home directory and unpack it on the new machine??  The
> original machine will be taken out of service and the new machine will be
> given the same name.

I've done this twice.  It's not trivial (at least it wasn't for me), but it 
can be done.  There are a couple of things you need to watch for.  First, 
make sure the file owners and protections are properly set.  This usually 
gets tricky if you're building a new system since your uids/gids probably 
changed.  You may find it easier to see what they were when you started and 
set them to be the same on the new machine.  Secondly, the archives are all 
done with links, and you need to make sure that they're set back properly.  I 
ended up moving from one system that had the mailman tree in /home/mailman to 
another that was /var/mailman so I fought with it for a while to get it 
right, but eventually it all worked.

If you've got good Unix skills to begin with, it shouldn't take you too long. 
If you don't, plan on killing an hour or two to get it right.

Good luck,	
	.../Ed
-- 
Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org