Self-ghosting email#

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 22:13:55 +0000

[ Reminder: more regular updates on what I'm spending most of my time on lately are at https://www.liminix.org/ ]

I had occasion recently to set up some mailing lists and although the subject matter for those lists is Liminix-relevant, the route to their existence really isn't. So, some notes before I forget:

• the NixOS Manual has a section on Mailman which is a good start - though I didn't copy the ssl-relateddirectives because I already have an SSL cert for my mailserver
• but it broke my mail delivery. It turns out that this is because my Postfix configuration is a few years old and doesn't set local_recipient_maps - although the default behaviour works OK, setting it explicitly for Mailman overrides that default instead of ignoring it. So we need to add them back:

        local_recipient_maps = [
          "proxy:unix:passwd.byname"
          "$alias_maps"
          "hash:/var/lib/mailman/data/postfix_lmtp"
        ];
  

• next we consult the upstream Mailman docs
  • most of the stuff in Configuring Mailman Core has been set up already, but it's worth reading the section on Configuring MTA to see what it's done.
  • next look at Configure Web Frontend - again, most of this is already done except for mailman-web createsuperuser, which has to be done as the mailman-web user.
• to get HTTPS working on the mailman web interface, the nginx virtualHost needs enableACME and forceSSL
• now we point a web browser at lists.example.org/admin and login as thesuperuser. Per the instructions in the FAQ we had to change (not delete! deleting will break everything! don't ask me how I know that :sad-angry-face:) the domain name and display name to something real.
• now point a web browser at lists.example.org/ and we can start adding the actual lists

Anyway, that's where we are. I'm quite certain I've done something wrong, but I'm yet to discover what.