[Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#502263: mailman: policy violation (9.1.1): writes to /usr when config changes

[Helmut Grohne]

Package: mailman
Version: 1:2.1.9-7
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 9.1.1

Policy section 9.1.1 says that FHS must be complied and FHS Chapter 4
says that /usr must not be written to. However after changing the
configuration file /usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.pyc is updated on
restarting mailman which is a violation of the policy. It should be
non-fatal when /usr is read-only, because python will then simply not
write out the .pyc file. However using tools like tripwire may cause
problems. Please lower the severity of this issue if you think a lower
severity is more appropriate. I only filed it as serious because it
technically is serious (a policy violation).

Helmut

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-6-686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=de_DE (charmap=ISO-8859-1)

Versions of packages mailman depends on:
ii  adduser                3.102             Add and remove users and groups
ii  apache2                2.2.3-4+etch5     Next generation, scalable, extenda
ii  apache2-mpm-prefork [h 2.2.3-4+etch5     Traditional model for Apache HTTPD
ii  cron                   3.0pl1-100        management of regular background p
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.11etch2       Debian configuration management sy
ii  exim4                  4.63-17           metapackage to ease exim MTA (v4) 
ii  exim4-daemon-light [ma 4.63-17           lightweight exim MTA (v4) daemon
ii  libc6                  2.3.6.ds1-13etch7 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  logrotate              3.7.1-3           Log rotation utility
ii  lsb-base               3.1-23.2etch1     Linux Standard Base 3.1 init scrip
ii  pwgen                  2.05-1            Automatic Password generation
ii  python                 2.4.4-2           An interactive high-level object-o
ii  python-support         0.5.6             automated rebuilding support for p
ii  ucf                    2.0020            Update Configuration File: preserv

mailman recommends no packages.

-- debconf information:
  mailman/queue_files_present:
* mailman/default_server_language: en
  mailman/gate_news: false
* mailman/site_languages: en
* mailman/used_languages:
* mailman/create_site_list: