Re: mailman permissions weirdness.

[Dave Sherohman <esper@sherohman.org>]

On Wed, Feb 19, 2003 at 04:56:11PM +0100, martin f krafft wrote:
> can someone explain this to me:
> 
> the /var/log/mailman/error logfile has permissions
>   -rw-rw-r-- root list
         ^          ^^^^
> mailman's cron jobs run as list, mailman's web interface as www-data.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> so i am wondering: www-data doesn't have any more rights with the
> original permission settings than it does with the new settings.
> moreover, www-data is not included in either of these permissions, so
> it's always 'others'.
> 
> what difference do the permissions make, then?

The file is group-writable.  If it is owned by group list, then
mailman's cron jobs (running as list) can write to it.  If it is
owned by group adm, then mailman's cron jobs cannot write to it and
they complain accordingly.

-- 
The freedoms that we enjoy presently are the most important victories of the
White Hats over the past several millennia, and it is vitally important that
we don't give them up now, only because we are frightened.
  - Eolake Stobblehouse (http://stobblehouse.com/text/battle.html)