[Mailman-Users] Mailman error when sending to test-subscribe

[Mike Hanby]

Thanks John, that did it.  I did, however have to create the
/usr/local/mailman directory first, it wouldn't configure until I did that.
So, here's my new steps.

% cd /usr/src
% tar -zxvf ./mailman-2.1.6.tgz

# mkdir /usr/local/mailman
# chgrp mailman /usr/local/mailman    #did this according to the README
# chmod a+rx,g+ws /usr/local/mailman  #did this according to the README

% ./configure --with-mail-gid=nogroup

# make
# make install

And there you have it.  The README led me to believe you were supposed to
run the install in the destination directory, I thought that was weird, I
must have misunderstood what I read :-)

Thanks again.
Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: John Dennis [mailto:jdennis at redhat.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 15:12
To: Mike Hanby
Cc: mailman-users at python.org
Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] Mailman error when sending to test-subscribe

On Tue, 2005-08-09 at 14:24 -0500, Mike Hanby wrote:
> Ok, I reinstalled, here are the steps that I followed (btw I'm using
> Slackware 10).
> 
> As root, I created the mailman user and mailman group.  I have mailman
> temporarily set up to allow shell access (so I can install as mailman).

You do not need to be mailman to install mailman, to install mailman you
should be root. The mailman user and group will need to exist prior to
installation so that the installed components can be assigned that
identity.

> # cd /usr/local
> # tar -zxvf ./mailman-2.1.6.tgz
> # chgrp -R mailman ./mailman-2.1.6
> # chmod -R a+rx,g+ws ./mailman-2.1.6
> # ln -s ./mailman-2.1.6 ./mailman
> # su - mailman

None of this is necessary (except for untaring)

> % cd /usr/local/mailman
> % ./configure --with-mail-gid=nogroup
> % make install > ./mailman-install.log 2>&1

ouch. you're building in the install area before you've installed,
sounds like a recipe for disaster. :-) You've also installed as the user
mailman, not root.

Think of your build area as a "staging area" that is used to construct
what will be placed into the the install area by the root user. By
trying to point the install at your build you're going to step all over
what you've built as it installs. It's equivalent to trying to copy a
file onto itself :-(

> I still don't see the ./scripts/subscribe script.

The subscribe script is just a copy of the join script (unsubscribe is a
copy of leave). The part of install that copied the existing scripts
worked, the part that installed copies of join and leave did not. I'm
not sure why that part of the install failed but installing into the
build area and not being root during the install are likely culprits.
-- 
John Dennis <jdennis at redhat.com>