[Mailman-Users] Mailman wrapper not sending out mail

Fri Nov 2 03:47:00 CET 2001

Gentle friends,

I installed Mailman 2.0.6 on my FreeBSD 4.4-RELEASE server, which runs sendmail
8.11.6.  I configured in accordance with the INSTALL instructions.  I 
used the Apache group nobody (GID 65534) for the CGI wrapper. 
Initially, it seemed logical to use GID 6 for the mail wrapper, 
according to /etc/group:

mail:*:6:

Here are the results of the first configure:

/usr/local/src/mailman-2.0.6# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mailman \
>  --with-mail-gid=6 \
>  --with-cgi-gid=65534

loading cache ./config.cache
checking for --with-python... no
checking for python... (cached) /usr/local/bin/python
checking Python interpreter... /usr/local/bin/python
checking Python version... 1.5.2
checking for a BSD compatible install... (cached) /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... (cached) yes
checking for true... (cached) /usr/bin/true
checking for --without-gcc... no
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether the C compiler (gcc  ) works... yes
checking whether the C compiler (gcc  ) is a cross-compiler... no
checking whether we are using GNU C... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking whether #! works in shell scripts... (cached) yes
checking for --with-var-prefix... no
checking for --with-username... mailman
checking for mailman UID... 1003
checking for --with-groupname... mailman
checking for mailman GID... 1003
checking permissions on /usr/local/mailman... okay
checking for mail wrapper GID... 6
checking for CGI wrapper GID... 65534
checking for CGI extensions... no
checking for default fully qualified host name... straylight.primelogic.com
checking for default URL host component... straylight.primelogic.com
checking for strerror... (cached) yes
checking for setregid... (cached) yes
checking for syslog... (cached) yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... (cached) gcc -E
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking for syslog.h... (cached) yes
checking for uid_t in sys/types.h... (cached) yes
checking type of array argument to getgroups... (cached) gid_t
checking for vsnprintf... (cached) yes
updating cache ./config.cache
creating ./config.status
creating misc/paths.py
creating Mailman/Defaults.py
creating Mailman/mm_cfg.py.dist
creating src/Makefile
creating misc/Makefile
creating bin/Makefile
creating Mailman/Makefile
creating Mailman/Cgi/Makefile
creating Mailman/Logging/Makefile
creating Mailman/Archiver/Makefile
creating Mailman/pythonlib/Makefile
creating Mailman/Handlers/Makefile
creating Mailman/Bouncers/Makefile
creating templates/Makefile
creating cron/Makefile
creating filters/Makefile
creating scripts/Makefile
creating cron/crontab.in
creating Makefile
You have new mail in /var/mail/michelle

So far, so good.  Then I compiled:

make DIRSETGID=: install

Because, according to README.BSD:

BSD ISSUES

1. Vivek Khera writes that BSD does nightly security scans for setuid
    file changes.  Setgid directories also come up on the scan when
    they change.  He says that setgid bit is not necessary on BSD
    systems because group ownership is automatically inherited on files
    created in directories.  On other Un*xes, this only happens when
    the directory has the setgid bit turned on.

    To install without turning on the setgid bit on directories, simply
    pass in the DIRSETGID variable to make, like so:

      % make DIRSETGID=: install

    This turns off the chmod g+s on each directory as they are
    installed.

Next, I checked directory permissions, and they were copacetic:

/usr/local/mailman# bin/check_perms
No problems found

Then I set up a list, using bin/newlist.

The Web pages for the list worked fine, no problems.  Next, I tried 
to send a message to Mailman, which quickly went down in flames. 
Turned out my assumption of mail (GID 6) for the mail wrapper was 
unwarranted:

Oct 31 22:46:38 straylight sendmail[63442]: fA16kcf63442: 
from=<michelle at eugene.net>, size=332, class=0, nrcpts=1, 
msgid=<a05001917b8069f6b5432@[192.168.1.1]>, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, 
relay=c886028-a.eugene1.or.home.com [24.14.231.140]
Oct 31 22:46:39 straylight Mailman mail-wrapper: Failure to exec 
script. WANTED gid 6, GOT gid 1.  (Reconfigure to take 1?)
Oct 31 22:46:39 straylight sendmail[63443]: fA16kcf63442: 
to="|/usr/local/mailman/mail/wrapper post songscape", 
ctladdr=<songscape at straylight.primelogic.com> (1/0), delay=00:00:01, 
xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=prog, pri=30032, dsn=5.3.0, stat=unknown 
mailer error 2
Oct 31 22:46:39 straylight sendmail[63443]: fA16kcf63442: 
fA16kdf63443: DSN: unknown mailer error 2
Oct 31 22:46:44 straylight sendmail[63443]: fA16kdf63443: 
to=<michelle at eugene.net>, delay=00:00:05, xdelay=00:00:05, 
mailer=esmtp, pri=30132, relay=mail.eugene.net. [207.189.137.3], 
dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (fA16pCf10466 Message accepted for delivery)

DOH!  Okay, sez I.  Undaunted, I reconfigured using 
"--with-mail-gid=1," which /etc/group shows as:

daemon:*:1:daemon

A second test message was sent.  Reconfiguring with daemon (GID 1) 
took care of the error message, but now Mailman won't respond to 
e-mail.  A message sent to the list (or to [list-request] seems to be 
handed off to mail/wrapper correctly:

Oct 31 22:24:17 straylight sendmail[60410]: fA16OFf60410: 
from=<michelle at eugene.net>, size=332, class=0, nrcpts=1, 
msgid=<a05001916b80699e20711@[192.168.1.1]>, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, 
relay=c886028-a.eugene1.or.home.com [24.14.231.140]
Oct 31 22:24:18 straylight sendmail[60411]: fA16OFf60410: 
to="|/usr/local/mailman/mail/wrapper post songscape", 
ctladdr=<songscape at straylight.primelogic.com> (1/0), delay=00:00:02, 
xdelay=00:00:01, mailer=prog, pri=30032, dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent

It's acting as if /usr/local/mailman/mail/wrapper isn't executing, 
because no mail is sent out after this point.

/usr/local/mailman# ls -al mail
total 20
drwxrwsr-x   2 mailman  mailman    512 Oct 31 23:02 .
drwxrwsr-x  18 mailman  mailman    512 Oct 31 14:55 ..
-rwxr-sr-x   1 root     mailman  17969 Oct 31 23:02 wrapper

I'm coming up empty, here.  If you have any ideas as to what the 
problem could be, please cc me as I am not a mailman-users 
subscriber.  I hope someone can point me in the right direction, 
because at this point I'm muttering to myself.  That's a bad sign.

.\\ichelle
---------------------
Michelle Brownsworth
System Administrator
PrimeLogic Corporation
http://www.primelogic.com