[Mailman-Users] New List Creation Hangs

[Trevor Antczak]

OK,

I was out of the office yesterday and couldn't play with this, but  
I've done some additional testing to try and figure it out.

1) I did, in fact give "apache" and "mailman" the necessary sudo  
privs, not "nobody", and "apache" is the user that the web server runs  
as

    from /etc/sudoers:
    apache ALL=(ALL)         NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/mailman.aliases
    mailman ALL=(ALL)        NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/mailman.aliases

   ps -ef | grep httpd:
   root      2823     1  0 Feb01 ?        00:00:04 /usr/sbin/httpd
   apache    8039  2823  0 Feb05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
   apache    8041  2823  0 Feb05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
   apache    8042  2823  0 Feb05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
   apache    8043  2823  0 Feb05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
   apache    8044  2823  0 Feb05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
   apache    8045  2823  0 Feb05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
   apache    8046  2823  0 Feb05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
   apache    8047  2823  0 Feb05 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
   root     19348 18932  0 11:00 pts/0    00:00:00 grep httpd

2) I gave "apache" and "mailman" shells (the RPM creates them without  
a shell) and ran "newlist" while logged in as each user.  "newlist"  
ran without errors and created both the lists and the aliases.  There  
do not appear to be any permission problems.

3) The data/aliases file is being updated

4) httpd error logs show the following:

   [Fri Feb 08 10:44:18 2008] [warn] [client 172.20.8.19] Timeout  
waiting for output from CGI script /usr/lib/mailman/cgi-bin/create,  
referer: http://goldfinger.lite3d.com/mailman/create
   [Fri Feb 08 10:44:18 2008] [error] [client 172.20.8.19] Premature  
end of script headers: create, referer: http://goldfinger.lite3d.com/mailman/create
   [Fri Feb 08 10:46:18 2008] [warn] [client 172.20.8.19] Timeout  
waiting for output from CGI script /usr/lib/mailman/cgi-bin/create,  
referer: http://goldfinger.lite3d.com/mailman/create
   [Fri Feb 08 10:55:11 2008] [warn] [client 172.20.8.19] Timeout  
waiting for output from CGI script /usr/lib/mailman/cgi-bin/create,  
referer: http://goldfinger.lite3d.com/mailman/create
   [Fri Feb 08 10:55:11 2008] [error] [client 172.20.8.19] Premature  
end of script headers: create, referer: http://goldfinger.lite3d.com/mailman/create
   [Fri Feb 08 10:57:11 2008] [warn] [client 172.20.8.19] Timeout  
waiting for output from CGI script /usr/lib/mailman/cgi-bin/create,  
referer: http://goldfinger.lite3d.com/mailman/create
   [Fri Feb 08 11:08:48 2008] [warn] [client 172.20.8.19] Timeout  
waiting for output from CGI script /usr/lib/mailman/cgi-bin/create,  
referer: http://goldfinger.lite3d.com/mailman/create
   [Fri Feb 08 11:08:48 2008] [error] [client 172.20.8.19] Premature  
end of script headers: create, referer: http://goldfinger.lite3d.com/mailman/create

Any other ideas based on this new information?

Trevor



On Feb 6, 2008, at 5:17 PM, Mark Sapiro wrote:

> Trevor Antczak wrote:
>
>> I used the excellent instructions here:
>>
>> http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users@python.org/msg47309.html
>>
>> to allow Mailman to do it's own alias creation in Sendmail.  This has
>> been partially successful, and I can now create lists with the  
>> newlist
>> command, and aliasing is handled automatically.  When I try to create
>> lists with the web interface though, something goes wrong.
>
>
> Because your web server is doing this as a different user.
>
> Something in the process works for the user (mailman?) doing
> bin/newlist, but not for the web server user.
>
> The most obvious thing I can guess is that you followed the
> instructions literally and put
>
> nobody ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/local/sbin/mailman.aliases
> mailman ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/local/sbin/mailman.aliases
>
> in /etc/sudoers and in fact, your web server runs as apache or
> something else other than nobody.
>
> If this isn't it, then exactly how much gets done? The list gets
> created. Does Mailman's data/aliases get updated? If so, this tells
> you that the problem is in trying to execute the
> /usr/sbin/mailman.aliases script.
>
>
>> Upon
>> hitting submit, the little firefox wheel starts spinning, but the  
>> list
>> creation never returns.  The list is at least partially created ( I
>> can see it on the main page), but the aliasing isn't done, so I  
>> assume
>> that somewhere between creating the list and running the aliasing
>> stuff, there is some kind of hang up.   Absolutely nothing nothing
>> appears in any of the logs that seems helpful (The most obvious log,
>> the error log, is actually completely empty).
>
>
> Have you looked in the web server logs?
>
> It won't be in Mailman's logs because the hangup is probably in  
> running
>
> POSTFIX_ALIAS_CMD = '/usr/bin/sudo /usr/local/sbin/mailman.aliases'
>
> which is outside mailman (and the very last step). Since it works with
> newlist, my best guess is still that the web server doesn't have
> permission do do the sudo without a password, so when you run it from
> the web, it hangs waiting for password input.
>
> -- 
> Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
> San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan
>

Thanks,

Trevor Antczak
Senior Systems Administrator
Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise
337-735-1351
trevor at lite3d.com