FreeBSD + GNU Mailman + Postfix
===============================

Shanker Balan
http://shankerbalan.com/

Changelog:

Wed Jun 11 13:41:51 IST 2003
- May the flames begin

Overview:

Mailman is a  mailing list manager (MLM) with a user-friendly web front-end
from http://www.list.org/

The workstation that I am installing GNU Mailman is running FreeBSD -CURRENT
with Postfix as the MTA. Apache2 is the web server.

[godzilla] ~> uname -a
FreeBSD godzilla.mydomain.com 5.1-CURRENT FreeBSD 5.1-CURRENT #0: Tue Jun 10
10:12:19 IST 2003     root@godzilla.mydomain.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/MYKERNEL
i386
[godzilla] ~> pkg_info -x mailman
Information for mailman-2.1.1:
[godzilla] ~> pkg_info -x postfix
Information for postfix-2.0.10,1:
[godzilla] ~> pkg_info -x apache
Information for apache-2.0.46:
[godzilla] ~> pkg_info -x python
Information for python-2.2.3:

- Compiling mail/mailman

Update the mailman/Makefile with MAIL_GID="mailman"

See /usr/ports/mail/mailman/pkg-message for details. I got this error with the
default GID which was "mailnull"

<snip>
<mailman@godzilla.mydomain.com>: Command died with status 2:
"/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman post mailman". Command output: Group
mismatch error.  Mailman expected the mail wrapper script to be executed as
group "mailnull", but the system's mail server executed the mail script as 
group "mailman".  Try tweaking the mail server to run the script as group 
"mailnull", or re-run configure,  providing the command line option      
`--with-mail-gid=mailman'.                                         
</snip>

[godzilla] ~# portinstall mail/mailman

- Update apache2/httpd.conf

###
### Apache: apache2/httpd.conf

# Mailman
ScriptAlias /mailman "/usr/local/mailman/cgi-bin"
Alias /pipermail "/usr/local/mailman/archives/public"

The cgi scripts should now work via the browser.

[godzilla] ~> links -g http://godzilla.mydomain.com/mailman/create

- Postfix Configuration

###
### postfix/main.cf
###
# mailman
owner_request_special = no
alias_maps = hash:/usr/local/etc/postfix/aliases,
	hash:/usr/local/mailman/data/aliases

- Mailman Configuration

Do the steps as outlined in /usr/local/share/doc/mailman/README.POSTFIX and
then follow the INSTALL doc /usr/local/share/doc/mailman/INSTALL. Set the MTA
to postfix and set the permissions on data/alias*

The INSTALL file has detailed information on the post-install configuration
which is adequate for getting a list going. The steps mentioned below is just a
repeat of it.

Generete the aliases hash:

[godzilla] /usr/local/mailman# bin/genaliases

Run bin/check_perms to test

[godzilla] /usr/local/mailman# bin/check_perms
/usr/local/mailman/data/aliases.db owned by root (must be owned by mailman

Problems found: 1
Re-run as mailman (or root) with -f flag to fix

[godzilla] /usr/local/mailman/data# chown mailman aliases*
[godzilla] /usr/local/mailman# bin/check_perms
No problems found

- Create a new list using "bin/newlist" and then start the Mailman daemon.

[godzilla] /usr/local/mailman# bin/newlist
Enter the name of the list:
[...]

[godzilla] ~# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mailman.sh start