Mailman - The GNU Mailing List Management System Copyright (C) 1998-2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA This file contains installation instructions for GNU Mailman, which is configured using the standard GNU autoconf software. You first need to prepare your system as outlined in the sections below, and then configure and install the Mailman software. UPGRADING: Upgrading is usually as easy as just installing the new version over the existing installation. However, you should read the notes in the file UPGRADING for important information before you upgrade. The GNU Mailman website is at http://www.list.org GNU Mailman can be downloaded from http://sf.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=103 0. Installation requirements You must have a mail server (MTA) that you can send messages to, and a web server that supports the CGI/1.1 API. Apache makes a fine choice for web server, and MTAs such as Postfix, Exim, Sendmail, and qmail should work just fine. You will need an ANSI C compiler to build Mailman's security wrappers. The GNU C compiler gcc 2.8.1 or later is known to work well. For more information about obtaining gcc, see http://gcc.gnu.org You must have the Python interpreter installed somewhere on your system. Currently Python 2.1 or newer is required, with the latest patch release on any specific branch being recommended. As of this writing (10-Nov-2003) that is Python 2.1.3, Python 2.2.3, and Python 2.3.2. For information about obtaining Python source code, RPM packages, or pre-compiled binaries please see: http://www.python.org If you are building Python from source, you should be fine with the standard "./configure ; make install" for most Unix-like OSes. If you run "make test", you'll see a bunch of tests skipped -- don't worry, you probably won't need them. Mailman tries to stick to the basics that compile on most systems. If there is a README. file that describes your mail server (MTA), read it now. Some MTAs can be integrated more seamlessly with Mailman for support of some advanced features (like creation and removal of lists through-the-web). Examples are Exim and Postfix. Setup instructions for specific MTAs are contained in these README files. 1. System setup You will need to be root to perform the steps in this section. Before installing the Mailman software, you need to prepare your system by adding certain users and groups. - Add a new user called `mailman'. Typically this is added to your /etc/passwd file. If username `mailman' is already in use, choose something else unique and see the --with-username flag below. - Add a new group called `mailman'. Typically this is added to your /etc/group file. The Mailman files will be installed under the `mailman' group, with the set-group-id bit. Mailman's security is based on group-ownership permissions, so it is important to get this step right. If groupname `mailman' is already in use, choose something else unique and see the --with-groupname below. The mailman user created in the previous step must be a member of this group. - Create an installation directory (called $prefix in the documentation that follows). All of the Mailman files will be installed under $prefix. Run "configure --help" for ways to split the installation based on read-only vs. read/write files. The default installation directory for Mailman 2.1 is /usr/local/mailman. It used to be /home/mailman for all versions prior to Mailman 2.1alpha2. You can override the default by using the --prefix option to configure (see below). If you're upgrading from a version previous to Mailman 2.1, you will need to use --prefix unless you move your mailing lists (this can be a wise upgrade strategy). Watch out if your site does something like mount /usr/local with the nosuid option. This will break Mailman, which relies on set-gid programs for its security. If this describes your environment, simply install Mailman in a location that allows setgid programs. Make sure the install directory is set to group `mailman' (or whatever you're going to specify as --with-groupname) and has the setgid bit set (but see README.BSD if you're on a BSD system). You probably also want to guarantee that this directory is readable and executable by everyone. For example, these shell commands will accomplish this: % cd $prefix % chgrp mailman . % chmod a+rx,g+ws . You are now ready to configure and install the Mailman software. 2. Running configure TAKE SPECIAL NOTE OF THE --with-mail-gid AND --with-cgi-gid OPTIONS BELOW. YOU WILL PROBABLY NEED TO USE THESE! You should not 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 mailman, but you could. However, make sure that the login used is a member of the mailman group as that that group has write permissions to the $prefix directory made in the previous step. Make sure that you have write permissions to the target installation directory, and permission to create a setgid file in the file system where it resides (NFS and other mounts can be configured to inhibit setgid settings). If you've installed other GNU software, you should be familiar with the configure script. Usually you can just cd to the directory you unpacked the Mailman source tarball into, and run configure with no arguments: % cd mailman- % ./configure % make install The following options allow you to customize your Mailman installation. --prefix= Standard GNU configure option which changes the base directory that Mailman is installed into. By default $prefix is /usr/local/mailman. This directory must already exist, and be set up as described in section 1 above. --exec-prefix= Standard GNU configure option which lets you specify a different installation directory for architecture dependent binaries. --with-var-prefix= Store mutable data under instead of under the prefix or exec_prefix. Examples of such data include the list archives and list settings database. --with-python= Specify an alternative Python interpreter to use for the wrapper programs. The default is to use the interpreter found first on your shell's $PATH. Note that when running the scripts from the command line, the first Python interpreter found on $PATH is always used. --with-username= Specify a different username than `mailman' to use as a default. Use this only if the username `mailman' is already in use by somebody (e.g. Mark Ailman's login name). This switch can take an integer user id or a user name. Be sure your $prefix directory is owned by this user. --with-groupname= Specify a different groupname than `mailman' to use as a default. Use this only if the groupname `mailman' is already in use. This switch can take an integer group id or a group name. Be sure your $prefix directory is group-owned by this group. --with-mail-gid= Specify an alternative group for running scripts via the mail wrapper. 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 `mailman other mail daemon'. 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 sendmail, the sendmail.cf configuration file designates the group id of sendmail processes using the "DefaultUser" option. (If commented out, it still may be indicating the default...) Check your MTA's documentation and configuration files to find the right value for this switch. --with-cgi-gid= Specify an alternative group for running scripts via the CGI wrapper. 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 `www www-data nobody'. 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. If you're using Apache, check the values for the `Group' option in your httpd.conf file. --with-cgi-ext= Specify an extension for cgi-bin programs. The CGI wrappers placed in $PREFIX/cgi-bin will have this extension (some web servers require an extension). must include the dot. --with-mailhost Specify the fully qualified host name part for outgoing email. After the installation is complete, this value can be overriden in $prefix/Mailman/mm_cfg.py. --with-urlhost Specify the fully qualified host name part of urls. After the installation is complete, this value can be overriden in $prefix/Mailman/mm_cfg.py. --with-gcc=no Don't use gcc, even if it is found. In this case, `cc' must be found on your $PATH. 3. Check your installation After you've run "make install", you can check that your installation has all the correct permissions and group ownerships by running the check_perms script: - cd to $prefix - Run bin/check_perms Don't try to run bin/check_perms from the source directory; it will only run from the install (i.e. $prefix) directory. If this reports no problems, then it's very likely that your installation is set up correctly. If it reports problems, then you can either fix them manually, re-run the installation, or use check_perms to fix the problems (probably the easiest solution): - You need to become the user that did the installation (and that owns all the files in $prefix), or root. - Run bin/check_perms -f - Repeat previous step until no more errors are reported! 4. Final system set-up Congratulations! You've installed the Mailman software. To get everything running you need to hook Mailman up to both your web server and your mail system. - If you plan on running your MTA and web server on different machines, sharing Mailman installations via NFS, be sure that the clocks on those two machines are synchronized closely. You might take a look at the file Mailman/LockFile.py; the constant CLOCK_SLOP helps the locking mechanism compensate for clock skew in this type of environment. - Configure your web server to give $prefix/cgi-bin permission to run CGI scripts. You probably need to be root to do this. The line you should add might look something like the following (with the real absolute directory substituted for $prefix, of course): Exec /mailman/* $prefix/cgi-bin/* or: ScriptAlias /mailman/ $prefix/cgi-bin/ Consult your web server's documentation for details. - You want to be very sure that the user id under which your CGI scripts run is *not* in the `mailman' group you created above, otherwise private archives will be accessible to anyone. - Copy the Mailman, Python, and GNU logos to a location accessible to your web server. E.g. with Apache, you've usually got an `icons' directory that you can drop the images into. For example: % cp $prefix/icons/*.{jpg,png} /path/to/apache/icons You then want to add a line to your $prefix/Mailman/mm_cfg.py file which sets the base URL for the logos. For example: IMAGE_LOGOS = '/images/' The default value for IMAGE_LOGOS is '/icons/'. Read the comment in Defaults.py.in for details. - Configure your web server to point to the Pipermail public mailing list archives: For example, in Apache: Alias /pipermail/ $varprefix/archives/public/ where $varprefix is usually $prefix unless you've used the --with-var-prefix option to configure. Consult your web server's documentation for details. Also be sure to configure your web server to follow symbolic links in this directory, otherwise public Pipermail archives won't be accessible. For Apache users, consult the FollowSymLinks option. Also, if you're going to be supporting internationalized public archives, you will probably want to turn off any default charset directive for the Pipermail directory, otherwise your multilingual archive pages won't show up correctly. Here's an example for Apache, based on the standard installation directories: AddDefaultCharset Off Now restart your web server. - Create a "site-wide" mailing list. This is the one that password reminders will appear to come from. Usually this should be the "mailman" mailing list, but if you need to change this, be sure to change the MAILMAN_SITE_LIST variable in mm_cfg.py (see below). % bin/newlist mailman Follow the prompts, and see the README file for more information. Now configure your site list. There is a convenient template for a generic site list in data/sitelist.cfg to help you with this. The template can be applied to your site list by running: % bin/config_list -i data/sitelist.cfg mailman Before doing this, review the configuration options in the template (note that many options are not changed by sitelist.cfg). After you do this, be sure you review the configurations via the admin pages for this list. Be sure to subscribe yourself to the site list, but use the admin interface because mailback subscription confirmations won't work at this point. - Set up the crontab entries. Mailman runs a number of cron jobs for its basic functionality. Note that if you're upgrading from a previous version of Mailman, you'll want to install the new crontab, but be careful if you're running multiple Mailman installations on your site! Changing the crontab could mess with other parallel Mailman installations. If your version of crontab supports the -u option, you must be root to do this next step. Add $prefix/cron/crontab.in as a crontab entry by executing these commands: % cd $prefix/cron % crontab -u mailman crontab.in If you used the --with-username option, use that user name instead of mailman for the -u argument value. If your crontab does not support the -u option, try these commands: % cd $prefix/cron % su - mailman % crontab crontab.in - Start the Mailman qrunner daemon, by executing the following from the $prefix directory: % bin/mailmanctl start If you want to start Mailman every time you reboot your system, and your OS supports the chkconfig command (e.g. RedHat and Mandrake Linuxes) you can simply do the following (as root, from the Mailman install directory): % cp scripts/mailman /etc/init.d/mailman % chkconfig --add mailman (Note that /etc/init.d may be /etc/rc.d/init.d on some systems.) On Debian, you probably want to use % update-rc.d mailman defaults instead of chkconfig. For Unixes that don't support chkconfig, simply copy scripts/mailman as above: % cp scripts/mailman /etc/init.d/mailman then set up the following symbolic links, again as root: % cp misc/mailman /etc/init.d % cd /etc/rc.d/rc0.d % ln -s ../init.d/mailman K12mailman % cd ../rc1.d % ln -s ../init.d/mailman K12mailman % cd ../rc2.d % ln -s ../init.d/mailman S98mailman % cd ../rc3.d % ln -s ../init.d/mailman S98mailman % cd ../rc4.d % ln -s ../init.d/mailman S98mailman % cd ../rc5.d % ln -s ../init.d/mailman S98mailman % cd ../rc6.d % ln -s ../init.d/mailman K12mailman - Check the values for DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST and DEFAULT_URL_HOST in Defaults.py. Make any necessary changes in the mm_cfg.py file. Note that if you change either of these two values, you'll want to add the following afterwards in the mm_cfg.py file: add_virtualhost(DEFAULT_URL_HOST, DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST) 5. Customize Mailman You should do these steps using the account you installed Mailman under in section 2 above. - The file $prefix/Mailman/Defaults.py contains a number of defaults for your installation. If any of these are incorrect, override them in $prefix/Mailman/mm_cfg.py, NOT IN Defaults.py! See the comments in Defaults.py for details. Once a list is created, editing many of these variables will have no effect. At that point, you'll need to configure your lists through the web admin interface or through the command line script bin/withlist or bin/config_list. The install process will not overwrite an existing mm_cfg.py file so you can freely make changes to this file. Note: Do *not* change HOME_DIR or MAILMAN_DIR. These are set automatically by the configure script. - Create the site password using: % $prefix/bin/mmsitepass This password can be used anywhere that individual user or mailing list administrator passwords are required, giving the mailman site administrator the ability to adjust these things when necessary. You may also want to create a password for the site-wide "list creator" role (someone other than the site administrator who as privileges to create and remove lists through the web). Use the -c option to mmsitepass to set this. 6. Getting started See the README file under the section "CREATE YOUR FIRST LIST" for a quick introduction to creating an initial test list. 7. Troubleshooting If you encounter problems with running Mailman, first check the "Common Problems" section, below. If your problem is not covered there, check both the FAQ file and the online FAQ Wizard. Also check for errors your syslog files and in the $prefix/logs/error file. Where syslog lives on your particular machine may vary. It may be in /var/log/maillog. It may also be in /var/log/syslog. On many machines, syslog files live in /adm/log/ instead of /var/log. If you encounter an error, send an error report to mailman-users@python.org. Include a description of what you're doing to cause the problem, and the relevant lines from your syslog. Also include information on your operating system, which version of Python you're using, and which version of Mailman you're installing. 8. Common Problems Problem: All Mailman web pages give a 404 File not found error. Solution: Your web server has not been set up properly for handling Mailman's cgi commands. Make sure you've: 1) Configured the web server to give permissions to $prefix/cgi-bin 2) Restarted the web server properly. Consult your web server's documentation for instructions on how to do these things. Problem: All Mailman web pages give an "Internal Server Error". Solution: The likely problem is that you are using the wrong GID or UID for CGI scripts. Check your syslog. If you see, for example, a line like: Attempt to exec script with invalid gid 51, expected 99 You need to reinstall Mailman, and specify $CGI_GID to be 51, as described in the installation instructions. Problem: I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying the list is not found! Solution: You probably didn't add the necessary aliases to the system alias database, given to you when you ran the newlist command. If you did add them, you likely did not update the alias database, or your system requires you to run newaliases explicitly. Refer to section 5 above for more information. Problem: I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying, "unknown mailer error". Solution: The likely problem is that you are using the wrong GID or UID for mail. Check your syslog. If you see, for example, a line like: Attempt to exec script with invalid gid 51, expected 99 You need to reinstall Mailman, and specify $MAIL_GID to be 51, as described in the installation instructions. see notes on Postfix below, as by default it will create these problems on installation. Problem: I use Postfix for my MTA and the mail wrapper programs are logging complaints about the wrong GID. Solution: Create a separate aliases file for Postfix in its main.cf config file under the variable "alias_maps". Put the file somewhere in Mailman's home directory, or somewhere else where the user mailman has write access to it; *as user mailman* call Postfix's "postalias" on the alias file. % postalias Also as user mailman, run % python -c'import os; print os.getgid()' This should print out the group id that Mailman should be configured to expect when the mail wrapper programs are run. Call it "thegid". Rebuild Mailman with % ./configure --with-mail-gid=thegid See also the README.POSTFIX file for more information on connecting Postfix and Mailman. Problem: I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying, "sh: mailman not available for sendmail programs" Solution: Your system uses sendmail restricted shell (smrsh). You need to configure smrsh by creating a symbolic link from the mail wrapper ($prefix/mail/mailman) to the directory identifying executables allowed to run under smrsh. Some common names for this directory are /var/admin/sm.bin, /usr/admin/sm.bin or /etc/smrsh. Note that on Debian Linux, the system makes /usr/lib/sm.bin, which is wrong, you will need to create the directory /usr/admin/sm.bin and add the link there. Note further any aliases newaliases spits out will need to be adjusted to point to the secure link to the wrapper. Problem: I messed up when I called configure. How do I clean things up and re-install? Solution: % make clean % ./configure --with-the-right-options % make install Local Variables: mode: indented-text indent-tabs-mode: nil End: