[Mailman-Users] 'Security: denied hard link...'

[Simon Brooke]

Hi

We have two more or less identical machines with very similar software 
installs - both Mandrake 7.0, both have had exactly the same security 
fixes (mostly to BIND), both run Apache 1.3.9 with mod_jserv as user 
webserver, group webserver (201, 201 in both cases).

Recently we've installed mailman on both machines, using (as far as we 
can see) identical installs. One works well, the other doesn't work.

What goes wrong? Well, for most actions performed through the Web 
interface, the user experiences timeout on the browser, and we get the 
following written to the console:

Security: denied hard link to 509.511 for UID 201, EUID 201, process 
python:8347

We get the following written to /opt/mailman/logs/error

May 13 18:47:47 2001 (8146) Traceback (innermost last):
  File "../Mailman/Handlers/HandlerAPI.py", line 82, in do_pipeline
    func(mlist, msg, msgdata)
  File "../Mailman/Handlers/SMTPDirect.py", line 77, in process
    mlist.Lock()
  File "../Mailman/MailList.py", line 1338, in Lock
    self.__lock.lock(timeout)
  File "../Mailman/LockFile.py", line 266, in lock
    raise AlreadyLockedError
AlreadyLockedError:
 
May 13 18:47:47 2001 admin(8146): 
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
admin(8146): [----- Mailman Version: 2.0.3 -----]
admin(8146): [----- Traceback ------]
admin(8146): Traceback (innermost last):
admin(8146):   File "/opt/mailman/scripts/driver", line 96, in run_main
admin(8146):     main()
admin(8146):   File "../Mailman/Cgi/subscribe.py", line 55, in main
admin(8146):     mlist.Save()
admin(8146):   File "../Mailman/MailList.py", line 856, in Save
admin(8146):     self.__save(dict)
admin(8146):   File "../Mailman/MailList.py", line 832, in __save
admin(8146):     os.link(fname, fname_last)
admin(8146): OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted
admin(8146): [----- Python Information -----]
admin(8146): sys.version    = 1.5.2 (#1, Dec  8 1999, 21:20:51)  [GCC 
2.95.2 19991024 (release)]
admin(8146): sys.executable = /usr/bin/python
admin(8146): sys.prefix     = /usr
admin(8146): sys.exec_prefix= /usr
admin(8146): sys.path       = /usr
admin(8146): sys.platform   = linux-i386

Sure enough, in the /opt/mailman/locks directory we find dead 
lockfiles. The *very* odd thing is that these dead lock files have 
dates one day in the future with respect to the system clock:

[simon at beesianum simon]$ ls -l /opt/mailman/locks/
total 20
-rw-rw-r--   2 mailman  mailman        60 May 14  2001 tesst1.lock
-rw-rw-r--   2 mailman  mailman        60 May 14  2001 
tesst1.lock.beesianum.jasmine.org.uk.8861
-rw-rw-r--   2 webserve mailman        58 May 14  2001 test.lock
-rw-rw-r--   2 webserve mailman        58 May 14  2001 
test.lock.beesianum.jasmine.org.uk.8863
-rw-rw-r--   1 webserve mailman        58 May 14  2001 
test.lock.beesianum.jasmine.org.uk.8901
[simon at beesianum simon]$ date
Sun May 13 19:21:47 BST 2001

We've done a Google search on 'mailman denied hard link' and have 
identified that this problem has occurred for other people:

<URL:http://www.ntlug.org/pipermail/discuss/Week-of-Mon-20000724/004183.html>
<URL:http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2000-July/005871.html>
<URL:http://www.ziobudda.net/pipermail/php-it/2000-December/009739.html>
<URL:http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-9911/msg00201.html>

While all these messages report the problem, none that we've found is 
followed up with a suggested solution...

Any suggestions very much welcomed!

Cheers

Simon


-- 
simon at jasmine.org.uk (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
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