Re: Mailman with Apache 2 on Sarge
[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.]
In article <7flgu-2Rz-51@gated-at.bofh.it>, SAJChurchey wrote:
> the e-mail is getting sent to the proper command through the aliases
> (In this particular case, I'm trying to subscribe by sending an e-mail
> to mailman-subscribe), but the owner doesn't receive an e-mail and
> neither does the subscriber (I've set the list up to send confirmation
> to the user).
>
> I've checked /var/log/mailman/smtp-failures, and I'm getting the
> following errors:
>
> Nov 09 11:13:15 2006 (20371) delivery to mailman-owner@mydomain.mytld
> failed with code -1: (-2, 'Name or service not known')
> Nov 09 11:13:15 2006 (20371) Low level smtp error: (-2, 'Name or
> service not known'), msgid:
><mailman.1.1163088164.20368.mailman@lists.mydomain.mytld>
If those are the actual log messages, the problem is Mailman
is trying to send to a domain that does not resolve.
Does your hostname command say "lists.mydomain.mytld?"
Does the string "lists.mydomain.mytld" appear in Mailman/Defaults.py?
If so, you have to override it with a real name that actually
resolves, in mm_cfg.py.
Getting Mailman to send mail the first time is tricky.
For some reason known only to the authors of the Python
library, its mail seems to come out of the external
interface on its host system. That is, the circuit it
opens to talk to the SMTP server has a source IP address
that is not localhost. So you have to make sure that source
IP address is in mynetworks in /etc/postfix/main.cf.
>
> I've been reading through the Mailman FAQs and have tried several of
> the interactive python tests, and I've had no problem sending e-mail as
> the list user. I'll try sending a subscription e-mail using this
> method, but as far as I can tell the Postfix server is receiving and
> delivering the mail to the proper command.
>
> What kind of troubleshooting can I do on /var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman?
If you are mailing stuff into Mailman through Postfix and
/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman, then that is not the problem.
For me, getting Mailman to *send* has been the not obvious
part.
> Any other problems I should look for?
Mailman is "documented" but there is little troubleshooting
information. It was not obvious to me that there are *three*
kinds of Mailman list. The first list you create is special.
It's the one that will send out password reminders and you
really can't use it for anything else. The documentation suggests
that you are just creating a test list but that is not true.
It also assumes you will call that list "mailman", which isn't
a bad idea. The other kinds are regular and "umbrella."
It may not be obvious to you that you have to run
mailmanctl start, and install the crontab, as the mailman user,
not as root or postfix or nobody.
You should also watch the error log. Mailman's internal data
structures are delicate, and when they get corrupted those
logs grow fast, because they are filling up with Python stack
traces.
Cameron
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