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<title>3.1 Run configure</title>
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<h2><a name="SECTION001310000000000000000">
3.1 Run <b class="program">configure</b></a>
</h2>
<p>
Before you can install Mailman, you must run <b class="program">configure</b> to set
various installation options your system might need.
<p>
<div class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
Take special note of the <b class="programopt">--with-mail-gid</b> and
<b class="programopt">--with-cgi-gid</b> options below. You will probably need to use
these.
</div>
<p>
You should <strong>not</strong> be root while performing the steps in this section.
Do them under your own login, or whatever account you typically use to install
software. You do not need to do these steps as user <code>mailman</code>, but you
could. However, make sure that the login used is a member of the
<code>mailman</code> group as that that group has write permissions to the
<var>$prefix</var> directory made in the previous step. You must also have
permission to create a setgid file in the file system where it resides (NFS
and other mounts can be configured to inhibit setgid settings).
<p>
If you've installed other GNU software, you should be familiar with the
<b class="program">configure</b> script. Usually you can just <b class="program">cd</b> to the
directory you unpacked the Mailman source tarball into, and run
<b class="program">configure</b> with no arguments:
<p>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
% cd mailman-<version>
% ./configure
% make install
</pre></div>
<p>
The following options allow you to customize your Mailman
installation.
<p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--prefix</b>=<var>dir</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Standard GNU configure option which changes the base directory that
Mailman is installed into. By default <var>$prefix</var> is
<span class="file">/usr/local/mailman</span>. This directory must already exist, and be set
up as described in <a href="create-install-dir.html#create-install-dir">2.2</a>.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--exec-prefix</b>=<var>dir</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Standard GNU configure option which lets you specify a different
installation directory for architecture dependent binaries.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-var-prefix</b>=<var>dir</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Store mutable data under <var>dir</var> instead of under the <var>$prefix</var> or
<var>$exec_prefix</var>. Examples of such data include the list archives and
list settings database.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-python</b>=<span class="file">/path/to/python</span></strong></dt>
<dd>Specify an alternative Python interpreter to use for the wrapper programs.
The default is to use the interpreter found first on your shell's
<var>$PATH</var>.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-username</b>=<var>username-or-uid</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Specify a different username than <code>mailman</code>. The value of this
option can be an integer user id or a user name. Be sure your
<var>$prefix</var> directory is owned by this user.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-groupname</b>=<var>groupname-or-gid</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Specify a different groupname than <code>mailman</code>. The value of this
option can be an integer group id or a group name. Be sure your
<var>$prefix</var> directory is group-owned by this group.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-mail-gid</b>=<var>group-or-groups</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Specify an alternative group for running scripts via the mail wrapper.
<var>group-or-groups</var> can be a list of one or more integer group ids or
symbolic group names. The first value in the list that resolves to an
existing group is used. By default, the value is the list <code>mailman</code>,
<code>other</code>, <code>mail</code>, and <code>daemon</code>.
<p>
<div class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
This is highly system dependent and you must get this right, because the
group id is compiled into the mail wrapper program for added security. On
systems using <b class="program">sendmail</b>, the <span class="file">sendmail.cf</span> configuration
file designates the group id of <b class="program">sendmail</b> processes using the
<var>DefaultUser</var> option. (If commented out, it still may be indicating
the default...)
</div>
<p>
Check your mail server's documentation and configuration files to find the
right value for this switch.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-cgi-gid</b>=<var>group-or-groups</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Specify an alternative group for running scripts via the CGI wrapper.
<var>group-or-groups</var> can be a list of one or more integer group ids or
symbolic group names. The first value in the list that resolves to an
existing group is used. By default, the value is the the list
<code>www</code>, <code>www-data</code>, and <code>nobody</code>.
<p>
<div class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
The proper value for this is dependent on your web server configuration.
You must get this right, because the group id is compiled into the CGI
wrapper program for added security, and no Mailman CGI scripts will run if
this is incorrect.
</div>
<p>
If you're using Apache, check the values for the <var>Group</var> option in
your <span class="file">httpd.conf</span> file.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-cgi-ext</b>=<var>extension</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Specify an extension for cgi-bin programs. The CGI wrappers placed in
<span class="file"><var>$prefix</var>/cgi-bin</span> will have this extension (some web servers
require an extension). <var>extension</var> must include the leading dot.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-mailhost</b>=<var>hostname</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Specify the fully qualified host name part for outgoing email. After the
installation is complete, this value can be overriden in
<span class="file"><var>$prefix</var>/Mailman/mm_cfg.py</span>.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-urlhost</b>=<var>hostname</var></strong></dt>
<dd>Specify the fully qualified host name part of urls. After the
installation is complete, this value can be overriden in
<span class="file"><var>$prefix</var>/Mailman/mm_cfg.py</span>.
<p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><b class="programopt">--with-gcc</b>=no</strong></dt>
<dd>Don't use gcc, even if it is found. In this case, <b class="program">cc</b> must be
found on your <var>$PATH</var>.
<p>
</dd>
</dl>
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.1, documentation updated on December 14, 2009.</span>
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