[Mailman-Users] mailman + htdig error/warning messages

[Richard Barrett]

At 15:33 19/05/2002 -0500, Matt Shirel wrote:
>Sorry if this is off topic, but I'm not sure where else to look for answers
>since my use of HTDig is entirely Mailman driven...  Any
>thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
>
>When the nightly_htdig cron job runs, it generates the following message:
>
>DB2 problem...: /var/lib/htdig/db.metaphone.db: Permission denied
>DB2 problem...: /var/lib/htdig/db.soundex.db: Permission denied
>
>Mailman 2.0.8 w/ htdig patches applied
>htdig-3.2.0-1.b4.0.72 (RedHat 7.2 RPM)
>htdig-web-3.2.0-1.b4.0.72 (RedHat 7.2 RPM)
>python-1.5.2-35 (RedHat 7.2 RPM)
>
>TIA.
>
>MATT

For those using the mailman-htdig integration patch:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=444884&group_id=103&atid=300103

I am about to upload a minor revision of the patch, primarily to stop 
Python 2.2 generating a warning about the use of import * below the module 
level in some cron scripts added by the patch. In that revised patch I have 
also added the following note to the $build/INSTAL.htdig-mm file that the 
patch adds. It deals with issue raised by the original post which I believe 
is best dealt with at the htdig installation end of things rather than at 
the Mailman-htdig integration point.

<quote>
htdig Permissions Considerations
------------------------------------

Python scripts added by this patch (nightly_htdig and its relatives) run the
htdig rundig script identified by HTDIG_RUNDIG_PATH to build search indices
for Mailman archives. Code added by this patch generates per list htdig
configuration files which are passed as a parameter to the rundig script.
These configuration files identify a list specific directory
($prefix/archives/private/<listname>/htdig) in which list specific data files
generated by and used by htdig are to be placed.

However, the rundig script identified by HTDIG_RUNDIG_PATH may attempt to
generate some files in htdig's COMMON_DIR when it is first run by 
nightly_htdig;
the files concerned are likely to be root2word.db, word2root.db, 
synonyms.db and
possibly some others generated by htidg's htfuzzy program. The standard rundig
script generates these files selectively if they do not already exist. 
Depending
on how you have installed htdig and how the rundig script is first run, there
may be a permissions problem when nightly_hdig executes rundig under the 
mailman
UID if it tries to generate these files.

You may need to either give the mailman UID write permission over htdig's
COMMON_DIR or, before the nightly_htdig script is first run, run htdig's 
htfuzzy
executable with a sufficiently privileged UID in the manner that the rundig 
script
would run htfuzzy, to create any necessary files in COMMON_DIR.

See htdig's documentation for further information on this topic.
</quote>