[Mailman-Users] mailman user password

[tanstaafl at libertytrek.org]

Hello,

I'm still trying to fix a problem I've had for a long time (started
after an update) where mailman won't start from the standard init
script. I think I have finally figured out what the problem is, but
wanted to ask...

Is the mailman user supposed to be passwordless?

I know I'm running a non vanilla version, but my question is mostly
generic I think...

Currently, the init script contains:

su - mailman -c '/bin/mailmanctl -s start' >/dev/null 2>&1

When I do this from a non-root account:

myuser at myhost ~ $ su - mailman -c '/bin/mailmanctl -s start' >/dev/null 2>&1

I see this in the log:

myhost su[6114]: pam_unix(su:auth): authentication failure;
logname=myuser uid=1001 euid=0 tty=pts/2 ruser=myuser rhost=  user=mailman
myhost su[6114]: pam_authenticate: Authentication failure
myhost su[6114]: FAILED su for mailman by myuser
myhost su[6114]: - pts/2 myuser:mailman

My problem is I don't know how this works/is supposed to work. Is
mailmans passwd supposed to be empty/blank? That seems like a bad idea,
but if not, how is it supposed to start without giving the password for
the mailman account somehow?

It starts fine if I start it from the command line as root, so it has to
be something to do with the init script and/or permissions (the password
for the mailman account)...

Thanks for any comments/thoughts...