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Mailman - The GNU Mailing List Management System
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Copyright (C) 1998,1999,2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA
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This file contains installation instructions for GNU Mailman, which is
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configured using the standard GNU autoconf software. You first need
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to prepare your system as outlined in the sections below, and then
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configure and install the Mailman software.
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UPGRADING: Upgrading is usually as easy as just installing the new
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version over the existing installation. However, you should read the
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notes in the file UPGRADING for important information before you
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0. Installation requirements
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You must have a mail server (MTA) that you can send messages to,
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and a web server that supports the CGI/1.1 API. Apache makes a
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fine choice for web server, and MTAs such as Postfix, Exim,
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Sendmail, and qmail should work just fine.
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You will need an ANSI C compiler to build Mailman's security
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wrappers. The GNU C compiler gcc 2.8.1 or later is known to work
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well. For more information about obtaining gcc, see
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You must have the Python interpreter installed somewhere on your
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system. Currently Python 2.1.3 or Python 2.2.1 is recommended.
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For information about obtaining Python source code, RPM packages,
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or pre-compiled binaries please see:
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If you are building Python from source, you should be fine with
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the standard "./configure ; make install" for most Unix-like
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OSes. If you run "make test", you'll see a bunch of tests skipped
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-- don't worry, you probably won't need them. Mailman tries to
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stick to the basics that compile on most systems.
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If there is a README.<yourMTA> file that describes your mail
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server (MTA), read it now. Some MTAs can be integrated more
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seamlessly with Mailman for support of some advanced features
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(like creation and removal of lists through-the-web). Examples
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are Exim and Postfix. Setup instructions for specific MTAs are
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contained in these README files.
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You will need to be root to perform the steps in this section.
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Before installing the Mailman software, you need to prepare your
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system by adding certain users and groups.
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- Add a new user called `mailman'. Typically this is added to
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your /etc/passwd file. If username `mailman' is already in use,
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choose something else unique and see the --with-username flag
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- Add a new group called `mailman'. Typically this is added to
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your /etc/group file. The Mailman files will be installed under
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the `mailman' group, with the set-group-id bit. Mailman's
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security is based on group-ownership permissions, so it is
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important to get this step right. If groupname `mailman' is
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already in use, choose something else unique and see the
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--with-groupname below.
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- Create an installation directory (called $prefix in the
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documentation that follows). All of the Mailman files will be
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installed under $prefix. Run "configure --help" for ways to
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split the installation based on read-only vs. read/write files.
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The default installation directory for Mailman 2.1 is
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/usr/local/mailman. It used to be /home/mailman for all
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versions prior to Mailman 2.1alpha2. You can override the
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default by using the --prefix option to configure (see below).
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If you're upgrading from a version previous to Mailman 2.1, you
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will need to use --prefix unless you move your mailing lists
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(this can be a wise upgrade strategy).
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Watch out if your site does something like mount /usr/local with
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the nosuid option. This will break Mailman, which relies on
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set-gid programs for its security. If this describes your
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environment, simply install Mailman in a location that allows
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Make sure the install directory is set to group `mailman' (or
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whatever you're going to specify as --with-groupname) and has
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the setgid bit set (but see README.BSD if you're on a BSD
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system). You probably also want to guarantee that this
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directory is readable and executable by everyone. For example,
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these shell commands will accomplish this:
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You are now ready to configure and install the Mailman software.
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TAKE SPECIAL NOTE OF THE --with-mail-gid AND --with-cgi-gid
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OPTIONS BELOW. YOU WILL PROBABLY NEED TO USE THESE!
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You should not be root while performing the steps in this section.
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Do them under your own login, or whatever account you typically
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use to install software. You do not need to do these steps as
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user mailman, but you could. However, make sure that the login
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used is a member of the mailman group as that that group has write
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permissions to the $prefix directory made in the previous step.
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Make sure that you have write permissions to the target
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installation directory, and permission to create a setgid file in
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the file system where it resides (NFS and other mounts can be
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configured to inhibit setgid settings).
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If you've installed other GNU software, you should be familiar
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with the configure script. Usually you can just cd to the
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directory you unpacked the Mailman source tarball into, and run
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configure with no arguments:
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% cd mailman-<version>
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The following options allow you to customize your Mailman
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Standard GNU configure option which changes the base
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directory that Mailman is installed into. By default
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$prefix is /usr/local/mailman. This directory must
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already exist, and be set up as described in section 1
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Standard GNU configure option which lets you specify a
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different installation directory for architecture
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--with-var-prefix=<dir>
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Store mutable data under <dir> instead of under the prefix
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--with-python=</path/to/python>
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Specify an alternative Python interpreter to use for the
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wrapper programs. The default is to use the interpreter
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found first on your shell's $PATH. Note that when running
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the scripts from the command line, the first Python
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interpreter found on $PATH is always used.
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--with-username=<username-or-uid>
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Specify a different username than `mailman' to use as a
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default. Use this only if the username `mailman' is
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already in use by somebody (e.g. Mark Ailman's login
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name). This switch can take an integer user id or a user
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name. Be sure your $prefix directory is owned by this
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--with-groupname=<groupname-or-gid>
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Specify a different groupname than `mailman' to use as a
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default. Use this only if the groupname `mailman' is
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already in use. This switch can take an integer group id
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or a group name. Be sure your $prefix directory is
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group-owned by this group.
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--with-mail-gid=<group-or-groups>
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Specify an alternative group for running scripts via the
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mail wrapper. <group-or-groups> can be a list of one or
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more integer group ids or symbolic group names. The first
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value in the list that resolves to an existing group is
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used. By default, the value is the list
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`mailman other mail daemon'.
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This is highly system dependent and you must get this
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right, because the group id is compiled into the mail
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wrapper program for added security. On systems using
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sendmail, the sendmail.cf configuration file designates
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the group id of sendmail processes using the "DefaultUser"
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option. (If commented out, it still may be indicating the
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Check your MTA's documentation and configuration files to
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find the right value for this switch.
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--with-cgi-gid=<group-or-groups>
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Specify an alternative group for running scripts via the
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CGI wrapper. <group-or-groups> can be a list of one or
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more integer group ids or symbolic group names. The first
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value in the list that resolves to an existing group is
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used. By default, the value is the the list
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`www www-data nobody'.
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The proper value for this is dependent on your web server
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configuration. You must get this right, because the group
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id is compiled into the CGI wrapper program for added
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security, and no Mailman CGI scripts will run if this is
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If you're using Apache, check the values for the `Group'
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option in your httpd.conf file.
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--with-cgi-ext=<extension>
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Specify an extension for cgi-bin programs. The CGI
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wrappers placed in $PREFIX/cgi-bin will have this
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extension (some web servers require an extension).
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<extension> must include the dot.
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Don't use gcc, even if it is found. In this case, `cc'
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must be found on your $PATH.
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3. Check your installation
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After you've run "make install", you can check that your
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installation has all the correct permissions and group ownerships
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by running the check_perms script:
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- Run bin/check_perms
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Don't try to run bin/check_perms from the source directory; it
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will only run from the install (i.e. $prefix) directory.
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If this reports no problems, then it's very likely <wink> that
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your installation is set up correctly. If it reports problems,
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then you can either fix them manually, re-run the installation, or
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use check_perms to fix the problems (probably the easiest
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- You need to become the user that did the installation (and that
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owns all the files in $prefix), or root.
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- Run bin/check_perms -f
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- Repeat previous step until no more errors are reported!
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4. Final system set-up
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Congratulations! You've installed the Mailman software. To get
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everything running you need to hook Mailman up to both your web
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server and your mail system.
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- If you plan on running your MTA and web server on different
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machines, sharing Mailman installations via NFS, be sure that
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the clocks on those two machines are synchronized closely. You
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might take a look at the file Mailman/LockFile.py; the constant
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CLOCK_SLOP helps the locking mechanism compensate for clock skew
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in this type of environment.
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- Configure your web server to give $prefix/cgi-bin permission to
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run CGI scripts. You probably need to be root to do this.
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The line you should add might look something like the following
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(with the real absolute directory substituted for $prefix, of
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Exec /mailman/* $prefix/cgi-bin/*
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ScriptAlias /mailman/ $prefix/cgi-bin/
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Consult your web server's documentation for details.
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- You want to be very sure that the user id under which your CGI
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scripts run is *not* in the `mailman' group you created above,
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otherwise private archives will be accessible to anyone.
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- Copy the Mailman, Python, and GNU logos to a location accessible
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to your web server. E.g. with Apache, you've usually got an
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`icons' directory that you can drop the images into. For
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% cp $prefix/icons/*.{jpg,png} /path/to/apache/icons
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You then want to add a line to your $prefix/Mailman/mm_cfg.py
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file which sets the base URL for the logos. For example:
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IMAGE_LOGOS = '/images/'
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The default value for IMAGE_LOGOS is '/icons/'. Read the
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comment in Defaults.py.in for details.
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- Configure your web server to point to the Pipermail public
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mailing list archives:
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For example, in Apache:
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Alias /pipermail/ $varprefix/archives/public/
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where $varprefix is usually $prefix unless you've used the
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--with-var-prefix option to configure.
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Consult your web server's documentation for details. Also be
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sure to configure your web server to follow symbolic links in
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this directory, otherwise public Pipermail archives won't be
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accessible. For Apache users, consult the FollowSymLinks
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Also, if you're going to be supporting internationalized public
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archives, you will probably want to turn off any default charset
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directive for the Pipermail directory, otherwise your
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multilingual archive pages won't show up correctly. Here's an
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example for Apache, based on the standard installation
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<Directory "/usr/local/mailman/archives/public/">
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AddDefaultCharset Off
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Now restart your web server.
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- Set up the crontab entries. Mailman runs a number of cron jobs
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for its basic functionality. Note that if you're upgrading from
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a previous version of Mailman, you'll want to install the new
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crontab, but be careful if you're running multiple Mailman
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installations on your site! Changing the crontab could mess
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with other parallel Mailman installations.
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If your version of crontab supports the -u option, you must be
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root to do this next step. Add $prefix/cron/crontab.in as a
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crontab entry by executing these commands:
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% crontab -u mailman crontab.in
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If you used the --with-username option, use that user name
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instead of mailman for the -u argument value. If your crontab
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does not support the -u option, try these commands:
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- Start the Mailman qrunner daemon, by executing the following
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from the $prefix directory:
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% bin/mailmanctl start
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If you want to start Mailman every time you reboot your system,
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and your OS supports the chkconfig command (e.g. RedHat and
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Mandrake Linuxes) you can simply do the following (as root, from
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the Mailman install directory):
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% cp scripts/mailman /etc/init.d/mailman
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% chkconfig --add mailman
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(Note that /etc/init.d may be /etc/rc.d/init.d on some systems.)
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On Debian, you probably want to use
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% update-rc.d mailman defaults
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instead of chkconfig.
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For Unixes that don't support chkconfig, simply copy
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scripts/mailman as above:
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% cp scripts/mailman /etc/init.d/mailman
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then set up the following symbolic links, again as root:
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% cp misc/mailman /etc/init.d
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% ln -s ../init.d/mailman K12mailman
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% ln -s ../init.d/mailman K12mailman
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% ln -s ../init.d/mailman S98mailman
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% ln -s ../init.d/mailman S98mailman
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% ln -s ../init.d/mailman S98mailman
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% ln -s ../init.d/mailman S98mailman
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% ln -s ../init.d/mailman K12mailman
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- Check the values for DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST and DEFAULT_URL_HOST in
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Defaults.py. Make any necessary changes in the mm_cfg.py file.
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Note that if you change either of these two values, you'll want
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to add the following afterwards in the mm_cfg.py file:
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add_virtualhost(DEFAULT_URL_HOST, DEFAULT_EMAIL_HOST)
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- Create a "site-wide" mailing list. This is the one that
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password reminders will appear to come from. Usually this
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should be the "mailman" mailing list, but if you need to change
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this, be sure to change the MAILMAN_SITE_LIST variable in
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mm_cfg.py (see below).
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% bin/newlist mailman
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Follow the prompts, and see the README file for more
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- You should then subscribe yourself to the mailman list.
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You should do these steps using the account you installed Mailman
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under in section 2 above.
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- The file $prefix/Mailman/Defaults.py contains a number of
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defaults for your installation. If any of these are incorrect,
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override them in $prefix/Mailman/mm_cfg.py, NOT IN Defaults.py!
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See the comments in Defaults.py for details. Once a list is
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created, editing many of these variables will have no effect.
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At that point, you'll need to configure your lists through the
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web admin interface or through the command line script
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bin/withlist or bin/config_list.
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The install process will not overwrite an existing mm_cfg.py
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file so you can freely make changes to this file.
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Note: Do *not* change HOME_DIR or MAILMAN_DIR. These are set
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automatically by the configure script.
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- Create the site password using:
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% $prefix/bin/mmsitepass <your-site-password>
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This password can be used anywhere that individual user or
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mailing list administrator passwords are required, giving the
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mailman site administrator the ability to adjust these things
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You may also want to create a password for the site-wide "list
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creator" role (someone other than the site administrator who as
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privileges to create and remove lists through the web). Use the
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-c option to mmsitepass to set this.
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See the README file under the section "CREATE YOUR FIRST LIST" for
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a quick introduction to creating an initial test list.
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If you encounter problems with running Mailman, first check the
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"Common Problems" section, below. If your problem is not covered
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there, check both the FAQ file and the online FAQ Wizard. Also
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check for errors your syslog files and in the $prefix/logs/error
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Where syslog lives on your particular machine may vary. It may be
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in /var/log/maillog. It may also be in /var/log/syslog. On many
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machines, syslog files live in /adm/log/ instead of /var/log.
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If you encounter an error, send an error report to
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mailman-users@python.org. Include a description of what you're
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doing to cause the problem, and the relevant lines from your
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syslog. Also include information on your operating system, which
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version of Python you're using, and which version of Mailman
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Problem: All Mailman web pages give a 404 File not found error.
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Solution: Your web server has not been set up properly for handling
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Mailman's cgi commands. Make sure you've:
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1) Configured the web server to give permissions to
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2) Restarted the web server properly.
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Consult your web server's documentation for instructions
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on how to do these things.
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Problem: All Mailman web pages give an "Internal Server Error".
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Solution: The likely problem is that you are using the wrong GID or
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UID for CGI scripts. Check your syslog. If you see, for
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example, a line like:
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Attempt to exec script with invalid gid 51, expected 99
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You need to reinstall Mailman, and specify $CGI_GID to be 51,
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as described in the installation instructions.
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Problem: I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying the
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Solution: You probably didn't add the necessary aliases to the system
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alias database, given to you when you ran the newlist
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command. If you did add them, you likely did not update
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the alias database, or your system requires you to run
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newaliases explicitly. Refer to section 5 above for
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Problem: I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying,
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"unknown mailer error".
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Solution: The likely problem is that you are using the wrong GID or
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UID for mail. Check your syslog. If you see, for
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example, a line like:
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Attempt to exec script with invalid gid 51, expected 99
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You need to reinstall Mailman, and specify $MAIL_GID to
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be 51, as described in the installation
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instructions. see notes on Postfix below, as by default
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it will create these problems on installation.
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Problem: I use Postfix for my MTA and the mail wrapper programs
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are logging complaints about the wrong GID.
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Solution: Create a separate aliases file for Postfix in its
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main.cf config file under the variable "alias_maps". Put
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the file somewhere in Mailman's home directory, or
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somewhere else where the user mailman has write access
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to it; *as user mailman* call Postfix's "postalias" on the
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% postalias <the alias file>
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Also as user mailman, run
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% python -c'import os; print os.getgid()'
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This should print out the group id that Mailman should
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be configured to expect when the mail wrapper programs
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are run. Call it "thegid". Rebuild Mailman with
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% ./configure --with-mail-gid=thegid
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See also the README.POSTFIX file for more information on
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connecting Postfix and Mailman.
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Problem: I send mail to the list, and get back mail saying,
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"sh: mailman not available for sendmail programs"
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Solution: Your system uses sendmail restricted shell (smrsh). You
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need to configure smrsh by creating a symbolic link from
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the mail wrapper ($prefix/mail/mailman) to the directory
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identifying executables allowed to run under smrsh.
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Some common names for this directory are
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/var/admin/sm.bin, /usr/admin/sm.bin or /etc/smrsh.
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Note that on Debian Linux, the system makes
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/usr/lib/sm.bin, which is wrong, you will need to create
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the directory /usr/admin/sm.bin and add the link there.
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Note further any aliases newaliases spits out will need
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to be adjusted to point to the secure link to the
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Problem: I messed up when I called configure. How do I clean
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things up and re-install?
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Solution: % make clean
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% ./configure --with-the-right-options
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INSTALL
