[Pkg-mailman-hackers] Mailman entries in sarge release notes

[Lionel Elie Mamane]

Hi,

The woody -> sarge upgrade path of mailman is a complete mess. I
suppose we should say something about it in the release notes for
sarge? (The etch version displays debconf notes for these.)

Issue 1: Administrator must update aliases

 The aliases you need for mailman in your MTA's configuration have
 changed. Please run /var/lib/mailman/bin/genaliases to see the new
 aliases you need.
 .
 Until you do that, some features will stop working and mails will go
 out with an invalid Return-Path.


Issue 2: List passwords broken

 List admin and moderator passwords are broken by this upgrade. Use
 /var/lib/mailman/bin/change_pw to generate new ones and email them to
 the admins and moderators.


Issue 3: What to do when the queue is not empty

 Several users have reported that the explanations (in the debconf
 note) on what to do when the queue is not empty on upgrade are not
 detailed enough. Here is a better explanation (the new version of the
 same debconf note):

 Old queue files present

 The directory /var/lib/mailman/qfiles contains files.  It needs to be
 empty for the upgrade work properly. If these files are not yet
 processed, but otherwise fine messages, then you can try to handle
 them by:
 - Stopping new messages from coming in the queue (at the MTA level:
   queue them in the MTA's queue or refuse them with a 4xx code). If
   your site has a relatively low mailman traffic, you can skip this
   step.
 - Start a mailman queue runner: /etc/init.d/mailman start
 - Let it run until all messages are handled
   If they don't all get handled in a timely manner, look at the logs
   to try to understand why and solve the cause.
 - Stop it: /etc/init.d/mailman stop
 - Retry the upgrade
 - Let messages come in again
 You can also decide to simply remove the files, which will make
 Mailman forget about (and lose) the corresponding emails; expect
 angry users.
 .
 If these files correspond to shunted messages, you have to either
 delete them or unshunt them. Shunted messages are messages on which
 Mailman has already abandoned any further processing because of an
 error condition, but that are kept for admin review, as they usually
 originate from Mailman bugs or other abnormal situations that need
 human inspection.



Remaining issues which I haven't delved into yet: Bugs #318639


-- 
Lionel