[Pkg-mlmmj-devel] Bug#804436: mlmmj: installs incorrectly formatted job to /etc/crontab when creating a list

[Chris Knadle]

severity 804436 important
retitle 804436 mlmmj: tells user to add malformed entry to /etc/crontab
thanks

> I recently moved all of my email setup to a new machine. I installed mlmmj,
> and when I created a list, it added the following /line to /etc/crontab:
> 
> 0 */2 * * * "/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -L /var/spool/mlmmj/tvcadmin/"
> 
> This led to another job failing to run - its crontab entry is:
> 
> 1 0	* * *	root	/usr/local/bin/simplebackup
> 
> The mlmmj-maintd job ran, but the simplebackup job was never started. As for
> the other jobs listed, I am unsure whether they ran or not.
> 
> When I amended the mlmmj-maintd job thus, the problem was resolved:
> 
> 0 */2	* * *	root	/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -L /var/spool/mlmmj/tvcadmin/
> 
> The problem appears to be that mlmmj creates the crontab entry without
> specifying the user name. It should either specify the user name or put the
> entry in the user's crontab.

I just found this bug the other day when I installed mlmmj on Sid to do some
testing and found the bug report by way of how-can-i-help... and I think
I've figured out what's going on.

mlmmj does not install anything to /etc/crontab -- instead it installs a
cronjob at /etc/cron.d/mlmmj that contains this (which works fine):

   0 */2 * * * root /usr/bin/test -x /usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd &&
/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -d /var/spool/mlmmj

This runs mlmmj-maintd every half hour for all mlmmj mailing lists that
reside under /var/spool/mlmmj -- meaning that adding separate mlmmj-maintd
entries to /etc/crontab is not necessary.



However after running '/usr/bin/mlmmj-make-ml -L testlist2 -s
/var/spool/mlmmj -a -c mlmmj' to create a mailing list it outputs the
following text:

   If you're not starting mlmmj-maintd in daemon mode,
   don't forget to add this to your crontab:
   0 */2 * * * "/usr/bin/mlmmj-maintd -F -L /var/spool/mlmmj/testlist2/"

and this is the bug: it tells the admin running the mailing list to modify
/etc/crontab when it's not necessary to do so, and in a way that will break
things.  It's not obvious that the cron job added in /etc/cron.d/mlmmj
exists and runs mlmmj-maintd on all mailing lists as this isn't mentioned in
the README.Debian.gz.  Furthermore because it's done as a cron job this
would not be considered "daemon mode" and thus even if the user found this
out they still may be misled into thinking that adding the malformed entry
into /etc/crontab is needed.



It seems like this package needs a patch to either modify the text output
concerning the crontab entry or remove it, and I'm not sure which is better.
 I'm considering making a patch an uploading it via a sponsored NMU.


Because of the RC bug severity and lack of response, mlmmj has been missing
from Testing for the last 3-1/2 months.  This seems to be an indication that
the maintainer is too busy for the package, so I'm considering filing an ITA
to adopt the package.  Thomas: this okay with you?

   -- Chris

-- 
Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle at coredump.us