Bug#361212: [Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#361212: mailman: security upgrade errors out with confusing and ineffective instructions

[Lionel Elie Mamane]

close 361212
severity 361212 normal
tags 361212 -sarge
merge 361212 268117
thanks

On Fri, Apr 07, 2006 at 01:18:21AM -0700, Ivan Kohler wrote:

> Attempting to install the recent security update (v2.1.5-8sarge2)
> errors out with the following message:

>   Old queue files present


Yes, the imperfection of this message is bug #268117. I'm not allowed
to change this in a security update. I tried to get this documented in
http://www.nl.debian.org/releases/sarge/releasenotes, but didn't get
any answer from the robster, and forgot about the issue. Hey, people
of debian-doc, could you please read
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-mailman-hackers/2006-January/000559.html
and react accordingly? Thanks.

Here's a slightly updated text for issue 3 (that's the text in the
current etch package), the one this bug report is about:

Template: mailman/queue_files_present
Type: note
_Description: Old queue files present
 The directory /var/lib/mailman/qfiles contains files. It needs to be
 empty for the upgrade to work properly. If these files contain
 unprocessed messages that are otherwise fine, 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 (with
 /var/lib/mailman/bin/unshunt). 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. You can use /var/lib/mailman/bin/show_qfiles to
 examine the contents of the queues.


Ivan, if you think this message can further be enhanced, feel free to
make suggestions.

-- 
Lionel