[Mailman-Users] Installing Mailman without root privileges?

[Bob Weissman]

At 12:32 PM 8/7/02, Jon Carnes wrote:
>No.  You need root.

Not exactly. I have successfully installed Mailman 2.0.x without root privileges.

>You can get by without root to simply install the files/applications (in
>your home area - the apps would run as you instead of the user "mailman"),
>but you need to have root access to modify the system's mail aliases file so
>that mail actually makes it to your lists - and to modify the webserver's
>config file so that the Mailman CGI area is setup properly.
>Jon Carnes

This is all true and correct. But it doesn't imply you need root. My ISP (Interland) provides enough Unix-group-type privileges that I can accomplish everything I need without root. I.e., I can edit /etc/mail/aliases and the Apache *.conf files without being root.

Of course, this requires an enlightened ISP which can provide you with just enough rope not to hang yourself.

- Bob