[Mailman-Users] problem updating mailman in Plesk from 2.15 to 2.19

[Brad Knowles]

On 8/23/07, Mervyn Kahn wrote:

>  If one is released it can be upgraded easily without fear of breaking
>  anything.  This, however, is not the case at the moment.

I've worked at a project where they were using Plesk, and after a 
great deal of customization work by the hosting facility staff, they 
were able to work out a way to upgrade the system.


What they ended up doing was a from-source (not binary package) 
install of the appropriate recent version of Python for the updated 
version of Mailman, but in a separate non-standard location.  This 
way, you don't step on any programs or processes that are built-in to 
the system that need the old version of Python, but you can tell 
other programs where they can get the more up-to-date version.

Then they did a from-source (not binary package) install of the 
Mailman code, again in a non-standard location, and told it where to 
find the non-standard location for the more recent version of Python 
they had installed.  They then worked to integrate the new version of 
Mailman into the Plesk package, changing calling paths in the 
appropriate programs, using symlinks to change locations in binary 
programs that could not be edited, etc....


My understanding is that, in the end, they were able to get most of 
the standard Plesk stuff working with the updated version of Mailman, 
but that some of what we consider to be Mailman-standard stuff was 
broken.  They didn't care, since they had their Plesk integration.

Oh, and since they needed to do the same sort of thing for various 
other packages on the system, and each one was dependant on a 
different version of Python, they ended up with about four or five 
versions of Python installed in various different locations.


Not fun.  But if you know what you're doing and you can handle doing 
installs direct from the original source code as opposed to keyboard 
monkeys who can't deal with anything that doesn't come in a 
pre-digested binary package, then you should be able to get where you 
want to be.

Just don't try to do this at Rackspace, 1&1, or any of those other 
lowest-common-denominator hosting facilities.

-- 
Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org>, Consultant & Author
LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>
Slides from Invited Talks: <http://tinyurl.com/tj6q4>

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