[Mailman-Users] policy errors ..

[Mark Sapiro]

Khalil Abbas wrote:
> 
> I have a dedicated server with debian operating system installed..
> 
>I used the following command line to install mailman:
> 
>apt-get install mailman
> 
>then used:
> bin/checkperms
> 
> to check my installation and found 76 errors .. then I ran:
> 
>bin/checkperms -f
> 
>to fix and it fixed most of them but still there are 11 errors nomatter how much I repeat the command .. I also checked the FAQ about policies and stuff but it didn't give a satisfying answer, the errors are :
> 
>/var/lib/mailman/logs bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/cron bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/locks bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/scripts bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/mail bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/pythonlib bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/templates bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/cgi-bin bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/Mailman bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/bin bad group (has: root, expected list)
>/var/lib/mailman/icons bad group (has: root, expected list)


I don't really know the details of the Debian package, but based on
your description, I'm thinking that the above are symlinks to the
actual directories and check_perms is seeing the group of the symlink
instead of the group of the target. Then when it attempts to change
the group, it is the target's group that changes, not that of the
symlink.

If that is the case, there's no problem because access will be
controlled by the permissions of the target, not those of the symlink.

I have to wonder however about a package that doesn't install with the
correct ownership and mode on all the installed files. Does Debian's
documentation tell you to run check_perms, or are you trying to fit
our installation manual to a package that it wasn't written for?

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan