[Mailman-Users] Permissions on Symbolic Links Files

[Barry Finkel]

I have on my Mailman 2.1.10 production system and my 2.1.11 test system
both created from the SourceForge source and installed on Ubuntu dapper
via packages I built:

mailman% ls -al /var/lib/mailman
total 40
drwxrwsr-x 10 root list 4096 2007-02-28 11:11 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 2008-04-04 13:31 ..
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   20 2008-06-30 16:13 bin -> /usr/lib/mailman/bin
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   21 2008-06-30 16:13 cron -> /usr/lib/mailman/cron
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   24 2008-06-30 16:13 Mailman -> /usr/lib/mailman/Mailman
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   24 2008-06-30 16:13 scripts -> /usr/lib/mailman/scripts
<<Non-relevant lines from the "ls -al" listing have been removed.>>
mailman%
mailman# ls -al /usr/lib/mailman 
total 36
drwxr-xr-x  7 root list  4096 2007-02-28 11:11 .
drwxr-xr-x 48 root root 12288 2008-06-09 12:24 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 root list  4096 2008-07-23 14:55 bin
drwxr-xr-x  2 root list  4096 2008-07-23 14:55 cron
drwxrwsr-x  2 root list  4096 2008-07-23 14:55 mail
drwxr-xr-x 11 root list  4096 2008-07-23 14:55 Mailman
drwxr-xr-x  2 root list  4096 2008-07-23 14:55 scripts
mailman#

When I run check_perms it complains:

     mailman# check_perms
     directory permissions must be 02775: /var/lib/mailman/Mailman
     directory permissions must be 02775: /var/lib/mailman/bin
     directory permissions must be 02775: /var/lib/mailman/cron
     directory permissions must be 02775: /var/lib/mailman/scripts
     Problems found: 4
     Re-run as list (or root) with -f flag to fix
     mailman# 

As Mailman is running fine, I do not want to change the permissions
on the symbolic links.  Is this correct?  I have 755 for the permissions
on the real files to which the symbolic links point.

Is check_perms reporting on the permissions of the symlinks or the
permissions of the real files to which the symbolic links point?

What problems would I see if I do not have group write not "02"
on these four files?
Thanks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry S. Finkel
Computing and Information Systems Division
Argonne National Laboratory          Phone:    +1 (630) 252-7277
9700 South Cass Avenue               Facsimile:+1 (630) 252-4601
Building 222, Room D209              Internet: BSFinkel at anl.gov
Argonne, IL   60439-4828             IBMMAIL:  I1004994