I’m writing this article to provide a complete, updated guide to install Mailman using Qmail as the MTA and FreeBSD 4.9. I first became familiar with Qmail and FreeBSD in dec 2002. I originally wanted *just* a backup mail server. When I was trying to figure this out, I didn’t find a current article in one place to reference. Open source software is very stable, flexible however at times a novice *nix admin really has to hunt to get all the answers.
First of all this is my personal step-by-step process of building my FreeBSD 4.9 server. Its not without many hours of *trying* to shortcut and not really understand the step by step instructions provided by great resources like http://freebsd.org/handbook or http://www.lifewithqmail.org I highly recommend anyone trying to do FreeBSD or Qmail to buy books to truely get help. Especially if your a *windows person* and are accustomed to having setup, next, next finish types of installs. I’ve bought a few BSD books and the The Qmail Handbook. These are priceless resources. One of my goals is to 100% understand how to build and support this type of build. My original goal was to build a backup mail server, I’ve achieved this. now its going to understand mailman listserv software. Truly take time to support those like Dave Sill, and the FreeBSD group. This example has only been tested with one domain, please let me know if there are problems. steve@deviq.com
Install Apache
cd /usr/ports/www/apache13-modssl
make && make install
Upload netqmail, daemontools, ucspi-tcp
ftp – netqmail-1.05.tar.gz,daemontools-0.76.tar.gz,ucspi-tcp-0.88.tar.gz
At this time you probably want to become root, if you’re not already.
mkdir -p /usr/local/src
mv netqmail-1.05.tar.gz ucspi-tcp-0.88.tar.gz /usr/local/src
mkdir -p /package
mv daemontools-0.76.tar.gz /package
chmod 1755 /package
Now you can unpack the packages.
cd /usr/local/src
gunzip netqmail-1.05.tar.gz
tar xpf netqmail-1.05.tar
cd netqmail-1.05
./collate.sh # watch for errors here
cd ..
gunzip ucspi-tcp-0.88.tar.gz
tar xpf ucspi-tcp-0.88.tar
rm *.tar # optional, unless space is very tight
cd /package
gunzip daemontools-0.76.tar.gz
tar xpf daemontools-0.76.tar
rm *.tar # optional, again
There should now be directories called /usr/local/src/netqmail-1.05, /usr/local/src/ucspi-tcp-0.88, and /package/admin/daemontools-0.76.
Create users and groups
The easiest way to create the necessary users and groups is to create a little script file to do it for you. In the source directory you’ll find a file called INSTALL.ids. It contains the command lines for many platforms, so copying the file to another name and editing that is quick and easy.
cd /usr/local/src/netqmail-1.05/netqmail-1.05
ee IDS, paste the following lines below
pw groupadd nofiles
pw useradd qmaild -g nofiles -d /var/qmail -s /nonexistent
pw useradd alias -g nofiles -d /var/qmail/alias -s /nonexistent
pw useradd qmaill -g nofiles -d /var/qmail -s /nonexistent
pw useradd qmailp -g nofiles -d /var/qmail -s /nonexistent
pw groupadd qmail
pw useradd qmailq -g qmail -d /var/qmail -s /nonexistent
pw useradd qmailr -g qmail -d /var/qmail -s /nonexistent
pw useradd qmails -g qmail -d /var/qmail -s /nonexistent
Then to run it, either use chmod to make it executable or run it with sh:
First method:
chmod 700 IDS
./IDS
When the script finishes, all of your users and groups will be created and you can go on to the next section. But what do you do if your system isn’t listed in INSTALL.ids? You’ll have to create them manually. Start by using your favorite editor and editing /etc/group. You need to add the following two lines to the end of the file:
qmail:*:2107:
nofiles:*:2108:
Next, using vipw (most systems have it, if not you’ll need to use your editor again but this time on /etc/passwd) add these lines to the end of the file:
alias:*:7790:2108::/var/qmail/alias:/bin/true
qmaild:*:7791:2108::/var/qmail:/bin/true
qmaill:*:7792:2108::/var/qmail:/bin/true
qmailp:*:7793:2108::/var/qmail:/bin/true
qmailq:*:7794:2107::/var/qmail:/bin/true
qmailr:*:7795:2107::/var/qmail:/bin/true
qmails:*:7796:2107::/var/qmail:/bin/true
Do the build
Now you can start building qmail. Change to the /usr/local/src/netqmail-1.05/netqmail-1.05 directory and let’s get started:
cd /usr/local/src/netqmail-1.05/netqmail-1.05
In the Verify Build Environment section, you located your C compiler. If it’s not called cc or the directory it resides in isn’t in your PATH environment variable, you’ll need to edit conf-cc and conf-ld. Say your compiler is gcc, and it’s in your PATH. Simply edit conf-cc and conf-ld and replace “cc” with “gcc”.
Now type the following:
make setup check
After the build is complete, you’ll need to do your post installation configuration. A couple of scripts are provided to make this job a lot easier. For example, if your domain is example.com and the hostname of your computer is dolphin, your config-fast line would look like this:
./config-fast lists.domain.com
Qmail setup is completed
Install ucspi-tcp
Earlier, you unpacked the qmail, ucspi-tcp, and daemontools tarballs. Now change to the ucspi-tcp directory:
cd /usr/local/src/ucspi-tcp-0.88
patch < /usr/local/src/netqmail-1.05/other-patches/ucspi-tcp-0.88.errno.patch
make
make setup check
Install daemontools
Change to the daemontools build directory:
cd /package/admin/daemontools-0.76/src
patch < /usr/local/src/netqmail-1.05/other-patches/daemontools-0.76.errno.patch
cd ..
package/install
*************************
Supervise scripts creation
*************************
ee /var/qmail/rc
#!/bin/sh
# Using stdout for logging
# Using control/defaultdelivery from qmail-local to deliver messages by default
exec env – PATH=”/var/qmail/bin:$PATH”
qmail-start “`cat /var/qmail/control/defaultdelivery`”
*******************
ee /var/qmail/bin/qmailctl
Copy from
http://www.lifewithqmail.org/qmailctl-script-dt70
***************************
Create Supervise Script Directories
mkdir -p /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log
mkdir -p /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log
***************************
Qmail-smtpd Run
ee /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/run
#!/bin/sh
QMAILDUID=`id -u qmaild`
NOFILESGID=`id -g qmaild`
MAXSMTPD=`cat /var/qmail/control/concurrencyincoming`
LOCAL=`head -1 /var/qmail/control/me`
if [ -z “$QMAILDUID” -o -z “$NOFILESGID” -o -z “$MAXSMTPD” -o -z “$LOCAL” ]; then
echo QMAILDUID, NOFILESGID, MAXSMTPD, or LOCAL is unset in
echo /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/run
exit 1
fi
if [ ! -f /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts ]; then
echo “No /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts!”
echo “Refusing to start SMTP listener because it’ll create an open relay”
exit 1
fi
exec /usr/local/bin/softlimit -m 2000000
/usr/local/bin/tcpserver -v -R -l “$LOCAL” -x /etc/tcp.smtp.cdb -c “$MAXSMTPD”
-u “$QMAILDUID” -g “$NOFILESGID” 0 smtp /var/qmail/bin/qmail-smtpd 2>&1
***************************
Qmail-smtpd run file
ee /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log/run
#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/local/bin/setuidgid qmaill /usr/local/bin/multilog t /var/log/qmail/smtpd
***************************
Qmail-send run file
ee /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/run
#!/bin/sh
exec /var/qmail/rc
***************************
Qmail-send log run file
ee /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log/run
#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/local/bin/setuidgid qmaill /usr/local/bin/multilog t /var/log/qmail
***************************
chmod 755 /var/qmail/rc
chmod 755 /var/qmail/bin/qmailctl
chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/run
chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send/log/run
chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/run
chmod 755 /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd/log/run
echo ./Maildir/ >/var/qmail/control/defaultdelivery
ln -s /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-send /var/qmail/supervise/qmail-smtpd /service
ln -s /var/qmail/bin/qmailctl /usr/bin
mkdir -p /var/log/qmail/smtpd
chown qmaill /var/log/qmail /var/log/qmail/smtpd
echo 20 > /var/qmail/control/concurrencyincoming
chmod 644 /var/qmail/control/concurrencyincoming
mv /usr/lib/sendmail /usr/lib/sendmail.old
mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail.old
chmod 0 /usr/lib/sendmail.old /usr/sbin/sendmail.old
ln -s /var/qmail/bin/sendmail /usr/lib
ln -s /var/qmail/bin/sendmail /usr/sbin
ln -s .qmail-postmaster /var/qmail/alias/.qmail-mailer-daemon
chmod 644 /var/qmail/alias/.qmail-root /var/qmail/alias/.qmail-postmaster /var/qmail/alias/.qmail-mailer-daemon
echo ‘127.:allow,RELAYCLIENT=””‘ >>/etc/tcp.smtp
echo ‘192.:allow,RELAYCLIENT=””‘ >>/etc/tcp.smtp
qmailctl cdb
ee /home/scs/downloads/inst_check.sh
#!/bin/sh
Verify your local qmail alias files
/var/qmail/alias/
.qmail-root
me
.qmail-postmaster
me
This is what my /var/qmail/alias looks like before installing Mailman
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root qmail 17 May 2 18:55 .qmail-mailer-daemon -> .qmail-postmaster
-rw-r–r– 1 root qmail 3 May 5 01:21 .qmail-postmaster
-rw-r–r– 1 root qmail 3 May 5 01:20 .qmail-root
here is what my control files look like in Qmail
[root@lists:/var/qmail/control]# ls -l
-rw-r–r– 1 root qmail 3 May 15 08:42 concurrencyincoming
-rw-r–r– 1 root qmail 11 May 15 08:42 defaultdelivery
-rw-r–r– 1 root qmail 10 May 15 08:25 defaultdomain
-rw-r–r– 1 root qmail 26 May 15 10:17 locals
-rw-r–r– 1 root qmail 16 May 15 08:25 me
-rw-r–r– 1 root qmail 10 May 15 08:25 plusdomain
-rw-r–r– 1 root qmail 26 May 15 10:17 rcpthosts
ee /var/qmail/control/locals
localhost
lists.domain.com
ee /var/qmail/control/me
lists.domain.com
ee /var/qmail/control/rcpthosts
localhost
lists.domain.com
***************************
Install Mailman from the ports
cd /usr/ports/mail/mailman
ee Makefile
change this line from
–with-mail-gid=${MAIL_GID} –with-cgi-gid=${CGI_GID}
Change to
–with-mail-gid=nofiles –with-cgi-gid=www //this might be apache also
make && make install
//The reason I change it to root is the README.QMAIL file that is in /usr/ports/mail/mailman/work/mailman-2.1.4/README.QMAIL
//I’ve not tested running as mailman as “The Qmail Handbook example shows”
//This might already be done if you installed Mailman from the ports.
cd /usr/local/mailman
chown -R root *
//Add this to the bottom of this file — /usr/local/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py
//Per the README.QMAIL file that is in /usr/ports/mail/mailman/work/mailman-2.1.4/README.QMAIL
If the check_perms script reports errors, rerun it using the -f option to fix the errors.
# bin/check_perms -f
//Configure your Web server to allow execution of CGI scripts in /usr/local/mailman/cgi-bin. If you are running Apache, it should be sufficient to add the following directive to the Apache //configuration file, httpd.conf:
ScriptAlias /mailman/ “/usr/local/mailman/cgi-bin/”
Copy the Mailman, Python, and GNU logos to a location accessible to the Web server. For example, if the directory in which Apache looks for icons is /var/www/icons, the following command should do:
cp /usr/local/mailman/icons/* /usr/local/www/icons
Edit /usr/local/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py and add a line that points the variable IMAGE_LOGOS points at the proper base URL for the logos you’ve just copied into place. MTA_ALIASES_STYLE=’qmail’
Point your Web server at the public mailing list archives. Using Apache, the following lines added to httpd.conf should do:
Alias /pipermail/ “/usr/local/mailman/archives/public/”
Options FollowSymLinks
Restart Apache. I use apachectl restart, which should work for most Apache installations, but you might want to use the appropriate init script.
# apachectl restart
/usr/sbin/apachectl restart: httpd restarted
Mailman relies on a number of cron jobs to provide much of its functionality, so the next step is to install the mailman user’s crontab entries. The Mailman distribution contains a prebuilt crontab file, /usr/local/mailman/cron/crontab.in, which can be installed with the following command:
# crontab /usr/local/mailman/cron/crontab.in -u mailman
Start Mailman’s queue runner daemon:
# bin/mailmanctl start
Starting Mailman’s master qrunner.
To ensure that Mailman starts automatically when the system reboots, add its initialization script to your init script system. For simplicity’s sake, I added an invocation of the script to rc.local — the Mailman INSTALL file lists other means of integrating the script into system startup scripts. Here are the lines I added to rc.local:
*****************
*****************
//This also should put something in /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mailman.sh
//this is what the rc file looks like that was put by the ports
//I only post this for reference, you shouldn’t have to put the file
//in the /usr/local/etc/rc.d
#!/bin/sh
#
# mailman This shell script starts and stops GNU Mailman.
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place – Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
#
# Copy this file to /etc/init.d/ (or /etc/rc.d/init.d/ depending on
# your system) and activate it as such:
#
# On Debian, type “update-rc.d mailman defaults”
# On RedHat, and derivatives, install with “chkconfig –add mailman”
#
# chkconfig: 2345 98 12
# description: Mailman is the GNU Mailing List Manager, a program that
# manages electronic mail discussion groups. For more
# on GNU Mailman see http://www.list.org
# processname: mailmanctl
# config: /usr/local/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py
# pidfile: /usr/local/mailman/data/master-qrunner.pid
PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python
MAILMANHOME=/usr/local/mailman
MAILMANCTL=$MAILMANHOME/bin/mailmanctl
case “$1” in
‘start’)
#rm -f $MAILMANHOME/locks/*
$PYTHON $MAILMANCTL -s -q start && echo -n ‘ mailman’
;;
‘stop’)
$PYTHON $MAILMANCTL -q stop && echo -n ‘ mailman’
;;
‘restart’)
$PYTHON $MAILMANCTL -q restart
;;
*)
echo “Usage: `basename $0` {start|stop|restart}” >&2
exit 64
;;
esac
exit 0
*****************
*****************
//put this empty file in the /usr/local/mailman directory
touch /usr/local/mailman/.qmail-owner
//Create a list called mailman by using the newlist command
# bin/newlist mailman
Enter the email of the person running the list: yourID@someID.com
Initial mailman password:
## mailman mailing list
mailman: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman post mailman”
mailman-admin: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman admin mailman”
mailman-bounces: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman bounces mailman”
mailman-confirm: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman confirm mailman”
mailman-join: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman join mailman”
mailman-leave: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman leave mailman”
mailman-owner: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman owner mailman”
mailman-request: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman request mailman”
mailman-subscribe: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman subscribe mailman”
mailman-unsubscribe: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman unsubscribe mailman”
Hit enter to notify mailman owner…
‘Be sure to add the listed aliases to /var/qmail/mail/aliases or wherever the aliases file lives on your system, ‘This puts the files in /var/qmail/alias, notice the /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman line
‘in the The Qmail Handbook example it says wrapper. According the http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=all#1.4
//Create a sample list called mailman by using the newlist command
# bin/newlist pop-fans3
Enter the email of the person running the list: yourID@someID.com
Initial pop-fans3 password:
## mailman mailing list
mailman: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman post pop-fans3”
mailman-admin: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman admin pop-fans3”
mailman-bounces: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman bounces pop-fans3”
mailman-confirm: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman confirm pop-fans3”
mailman-join: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman join pop-fans3”
mailman-leave: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman leave pop-fans3”
mailman-owner: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman owner pop-fans3”
mailman-request: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman request pop-fans3”
mailman-subscribe: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman subscribe pop-fans3”
mailman-unsubscribe: “|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman unsubscribe pop-fans3”
Hit enter to notify mailman owner…
//Be sure to add the listed aliases to /var/qmail/mail/aliases or wherever the aliases file lives on your system
echo ‘|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman post pop-fans3’ > ~alias/.qmail-pop-fans3
echo ‘|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman mailowner pop-fans3’ > ~alias/.qmail-pop-fans3-admin
echo ‘|preline /usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman mailcmd pop-fans3’ > ~alias/.qmail-pop-fans3-request
echo ‘&pop-fans3-admin’ > ~alias/.qmail-pop-fans3-owner
echo ‘&pop-fans3-admin’ > ~alias/.qmail-owner-pop-fans3
chmod 644 ~alias/.qmail-pop-fans3
chmod 644 ~alias/.qmail-pop-fans3-admin
chmod 644 ~alias/.qmail-pop-fans3-request
chmod 644 ~alias/.qmail-pop-fans3-owner
chmod 644 ~alias/.qmail-owner-pop-fans3
# su – mailman
$ bin/mmsitepass newpass
Password changed.
Your going to want to chose something besides newpass..
Pondering Thought 