Mailman OSXS Workaround

If you use Mac OS X Server 10.3’s bundled mailman, you’ll eventually have the pleasure of Mailman falling over with a cryptic error message:

The mailman at redshed.net mailing list has 1
request(s) waiting for your
consideration at:

    http://redshed.net/mailman/admindb/mailman

Please attend to this at your earliest
convenience.  This notice of
pending requests, if any, will be sent out daily.


Pending posts:
From: mailman at mail.redshed.net on Sun Dec 25
09:00:04 2005
Subject: Cron <mailman at caesar2>
/usr/bin/python -S
/usr/share/mailman/cron/disabled
Cause: Post by non-member to a members-only list

--

Return-Path: <mailman at mail.redshed.net>
X-Original-To: mailman at mail.redshed.net
Delivered-To: mailman at mail.redshed.net
Received: by mail.redshed.net (Postfix, from
userid 78)
    id C25997485B2; Sun, 25 Dec 2005 09:00:02
-0600 (CST)
From: mailman at mail.redshed.net (Cron Daemon)
To: mailman at mail.redshed.net
Subject: Cron <mailman at caesar2>
/usr/bin/python -S
/usr/share/mailman/cron/disabled
X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/var/empty>
X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>
X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=mailman>
X-Cron-Env: <USER=mailman>
Message-Id:
<20051225150002.C25997485B2@mail.redshed.net>
Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2005 09:00:02 -0600 (CST)

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/mailman/cron/disabled", line
209, in ?
    main()
  File "/usr/share/mailman/cron/disabled", line
202, in main
    mlist.Save()
  File "/usr/share/mailman/Mailman/MailList.py",
line 515, in Save
    self.__save(dict)
  File "/usr/share/mailman/Mailman/MailList.py",
line 487, in __save
    os.unlink(fname_last)
OSError: [Errno 22] Invalid argument:
'/private/var/mailman/lists/xxx/config.pck.last'

The issue is that a file, config.pck.last, becomes undeletable for some reason. Mailman’s trying to save-safe its config.pck, and it fails since it can’t move the old file out of the way. Here’s the command I issue on the Mailman server to workaround the problem:

sudo find /var/mailman/lists -name "config.pck.last" -exec mv {} /tmp \;

I find when one list’s config.pck.last goes rouge, there’s usually a smattering of others. This command moves the bad files aside for all the hosted lists, in one go.

Monday, December 26, 2005
12:00 AM