- Mailman-users - lists.mailman3.org

stop mailmanweb
by Thomas Krichel March 22, 2026

March 22, 2026

I'm still working on my mailman site https://lists.repec.info. It's now sadder than it was before. To test, I need to restart mailmanweb for testing. I don't quite get how to stop mailmanweb. root@darni ~ # systemctl stop mailmanweb But mailman-web processes are still running root@darni ~ # ps axf | grep mailman-web 532703 pts/4 S+ 0:00 \_ grep mailman-web 516993 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/python3.13 /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/mailman-web qcluster --pythonpath /etc/mailman3 --settings settings 517012 ? S 0:05 \_ /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/python3.13 /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/mailman-web qcluster --pythonpath /etc/mailman3 --settings settings 517014 ? S 0:00 \_ /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/python3.13 /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/mailman-web qcluster --pythonpath /etc/mailman3 --settings settings 517015 ? S 0:00 \_ /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/python3.13 /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/mailman-web qcluster --pythonpath /etc/mailman3 --settings settings 517016 ? S 0:00 \_ /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/python3.13 /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/mailman-web qcluster --pythonpath /etc/mailman3 --settings settings 517017 ? S 2:09 \_ /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/python3.13 /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/mailman-web qcluster --pythonpath /etc/mailman3 --settings settings Here for some background. Here is my service root@darni /var/log/mailman3 # cat /etc/systemd/system/mailmanweb.service [Unit] Description=GNU Mailman Web UI After=syslog.target network.target postgresql.service mailman3.service [Service] Environment="PYTHONPATH=/etc/mailman3/" User=mailman Group=mailman ExecStart=/usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/uwsgi --ini /etc/mailman3/uwsgi.ini KillSignal=SIGINT [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target Here is my config root@darni ~ # cat /etc/mailman3/uwsgi.ini # /etc/mailman3/uwsgi.ini # [uwsgi] # Port on which uwsgi will be listening. http-socket = 0.0.0.0:8000 # If running uwsgi from the virtual environment ... virtualenv = /usr/local/mailman/venv/ module=mailman_web.wsgi:application # Set PYTHONPATH env = PYTHONPATH=/etc/mailman3/ # The default settings module. env = DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=settings # Setup default number of processes and threads per process. master = true processes = 2 threads = 2 plugins = logfile # Setup the django_q related worker processes. attach-daemon = /usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/mailman-web qcluster # Setup the request log. req-logger = file:/usr/local/mailman/web/logs/uwsgi.log # Log qcluster commands separately. logger = qcluster file:/usr/local/mailman/web/logs/uwsgi-qcluster.log log-route = qcluster uwsgi-daemons # Last log and it logs the rest of the stuff. logger = file:/usr/local/mailman/web/logs/uwsgi-error.log It's the same as is the doc, just the head directory is changed. I also had to add plugins = logfile otherwise I get complaints it can't log. I suspect this could be usefully added to the doc. Thanks and cheers! -- Written by Thomas Krichel http://openlib.org/home/krichel on his 22206th day.

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starting mailman2 under Debian
by Thomas Krichel March 22, 2026

March 22, 2026

It took me several hours to figure out how to start Mailman2.1 on a Debian system, where it is package is run as list. It complained it could not open the pid file. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ## file: /etc/systemd/system/mailman.service [Unit] Description=GNU Mailman Mailing List Manager After=syslog.target network.target [Service] Type=forking User=list Group=list RuntimeDirectory=mailman PIDFile=/run/mailman/mailman.pid ExecStart=/usr/lib/mailman/bin/mailmanctl -s start ExecStop=/usr/lib/mailman/bin/mailmanctl stop [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hopefully this will save some good folks' time! -- Written by Thomas Krichel http://openlib.org/home/krichel on his 22206th day.

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list not found
by Thomas Krichel March 18, 2026

March 18, 2026

I am very sorry to you folks for not getting back on the problems I am having to install on Debian testing. There are two reasons. One is that I have been much offline for personal reasons. The other is that I have another machine called tagol where I have been running Mailman3 for about three years, using the Debian packet on Debian testing. As testing move to 3.13 this installation could not run. I replaced mailman-core with a 3.12 venv install, but left the mailman3-web package of Debian. This half-arsed job held up for a long time but two weeks ago collapsed. No email went through. I have been trying to switch to a full venv version, still staying with 3.12. Tagol hosts a single list mailman@tagol:~$ mailman lists 1 matching mailing lists found: bibnez(a)folks.email I have some bad queue files. Let's look at the oldest mailman@tagol:~$ ls -lt /var/lib/mailman3/queue/bad/ | tail -1 -rw-rw---- 1 mailman mailman 8579 Mar 11 14:32 1773239548.2417333+451b61b8707218b4dc3d0864eb4ee0172bd21d71.psv Write a script "test_bad" to submit this back. mailman@tagol:~$ cat test_bad #!/bin/bash base=/var/lib/mailman3/queue/bad/1773239548.2417333+451b61b8707218b4dc3d0864eb4ee0172bd21d71 psv=$base.psv pck=$base.pck cp $psv $pck mailman unshunt mailman@tagol:~$ When I run this script, I get in my log Mar 15 05:40:46 2026 (2658932) <a930211e778a4aa0829cee5b2a9e7db9(a)kbs-mg.de> runner "in" shunting message for missing list: <object object at 0x7fb1ad1ad730> I suspect mailman does not see the database. But mailman@tagol:~$ mailman info | grep -v credent GNU Mailman 3.3.10 (Tom Sawyer) Python 3.12.9 (main, Feb 5 2025, 01:31:18) [GCC 14.2.0] config file: /etc/mailman3/mailman.cfg db url: sqlite:////var/lib/mailman3/data/mailman.db devmode: DISABLED REST root url: http://localhost:8001/3.1/ The file exists mailman@tagol:~$ ls -l /var/lib/mailman3/data/mailman.db -rw-rw---- 1 mailman mailman 4825088 Mar 15 05:20 /var/lib/mailman3/data/mailman.db I have no idea where to look next. Thanks and cheers! -- Written by Thomas Krichel http://openlib.org/home/krichel on his 22199th day.

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alembic version
by Thomas Krichel March 17, 2026

March 17, 2026

On my fresh install I am running into problems with the alembic number. root@darni ~ # systemctl restart mailman3 ; systemctl restart mailmanwebq Job for mailman3.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status mailman3.service" and "journalctl -xeu mailman3.service" for details. Failed to restart mailmanwebq.service: Unit mailmanwebq.service not found. root@darni ~ # systemctl status mailman3.service × mailman3.service - GNU Mailing List Manager Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/mailman3.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2026-03-07 07:01:03 UTC; 2s ago Duration: 23h 33min 7.258s Invocation: dde1db5581914d96b1da564d537df84a Process: 1209747 ExecStart=/usr/local/mailman/venv/bin/mailman start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Mem peak: 64.8M CPU: 681ms Mar 07 07:01:03 darni mailman[1209747]: File "/usr/lib/python3.13/contextlib.py", line 162, in __exit__ Mar 07 07:01:03 darni mailman[1209747]: self.gen.throw(value) Mar 07 07:01:03 darni mailman[1209747]: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^ Mar 07 07:01:03 darni mailman[1209747]: File "/usr/local/mailman/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/alembic/script/base.py", line 245, in _catch_revision_errors Mar 07 07:01:03 darni mailman[1209747]: raise util.CommandError(resolution) from re Mar 07 07:01:03 darni mailman[1209747]: alembic.util.exc.CommandError: Can't locate revision identified by '8cc1f79f4459' Mar 07 07:01:03 darni systemd[1]: mailman3.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE Mar 07 07:01:03 darni systemd[1]: mailman3.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Mar 07 07:01:03 darni systemd[1]: Failed to start mailman3.service - GNU Mailing List Manager. Mar 07 07:01:03 darni systemd[1]: mailman3.service: Consumed 681ms CPU time over 727ms wall clock time, 64.8M memory peak. Indeed: root@darni ~ # sudo -u postgres psql -d mailman3 psql (18.2 (Debian 18.2-1)) Type "help" for help. mailman3=# SELECT version_num FROM alembic_version; version_num -------------- 8cc1f79f4459 (1 row) Setting the number to say 0 mailman3=# update alembic_version set version_num=0; UPDATE 1 and repeating the restart yields the same problem. -- Written by Thomas Krichel http://openlib.org/home/krichel on his 22191st day.

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Subscription confirmation email
by Eric Broens March 15, 2026

March 15, 2026

While doing some tests I subscribed to a mailinglist by sending an email to <list>-join@<domain> Mailman correctly emailed the confirmation request, and the mail was accepted by my ISP. For some reason the confirmation mail did not arrive in my mailbox nor in my spam folder, it seems to have been silently dropped. A day later, I again sent a subscription request to <list>-join@<domain>, and I received a mail from <list>-bounces@<domain> with subject "The results of your email commands" saying that I have a pending subscription for that mailinglist. However, no confirmation link is included, nor instructions to visit the website to confirm the subscription. Am I missing something in the configuration? I would expect that a confirmation request is mailed again to the subscriber. Most subscribers don't use the web interface to manage their subscriptions. The versions running with Maxking's docker-mailman and postfix are: Mailman Core versie GNU Mailman 3.3.10 (Tom Sawyer) Mailman Core API versie 3.1 Mailman Core Python versie 3.12.7 (main, Oct 7 2024, 11:30:19) [GCC 13.2.1 20240309] Best regards, Eric

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Footer variables
by Washington Odhiambo March 14, 2026

March 14, 2026

In my /opt/mailman/mm/var/templates/lists/ kictanet.lists.kictanet.or.ke/en/list:member:regular:footer.txt, I have: Archived at: ${hyperkitty_url I was hoping that variable would be replaced with what I see in this list, i.e. - Archived at: https://lists.mailman3.org/archives/list/mailman-users @mailman3.org/message/HX6NZKICL7V2QWE2V4YNKIMSMQHARPUV/ However, in my posts, it's blank. What am I missing? -- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254 7 3200 0004/+254 7 2274 3223 In an Internet failure case, the #1 suspect is a constant: DNS. "Oh, the cruft.", egrep -v '^$|^.*#' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :-) [How to ask smart questions: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html]

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[GSoC 2026] [Feature Proposal] Per-List Backup and Restore Support
by sonika gutha March 14, 2026

March 14, 2026

*Introduction: * My name is *Sonika Chowdary Gutha*, and I am a *second-year Computer Science undergraduate at BITS Pilani, India*. I recently completed a *6-month internship in Backend Development using Python and Django*, where I gained experience in building backend systems and working with REST APIs.I am also familiar with the *MERN stack and the Flutter framework*, and I have experience developing both web and mobile applications. In addition I have been introduced to the fundamentals of several programming languages, including *Python, C++, and JavaScript*. I am exploring the possibility of implementing a *per-list backup and restore feature* for Mailman. The goal of this feature is to allow list administrators or owners to *export the configuration and membership data of a specific mailing list into a portable backup file and restore it later when needed*. This could be useful in situations such as: - Migrating lists between servers - Recovering from configuration mistakes - Replicating list setups across environments *Implementation:* The following diagram provides a visual representation of the proposed backup and restore workflow <https://excalidraw.com/#json=PhUB9tdMrupMfpx7O6_i6,OLBUtBJjL5_sCR-UokrNHw> .: I plan to implement this feature in two parts. The main backup and restore logic should live in *Mailman Core*, since that is where the actual list configuration and membership data are stored. My idea is to define a *versioned JSON format* that captures the important per-list data such as list settings, members, owners, moderators, and relevant subscription preferences. On the export side, Core would gather this data and write it into a portable backup file. On the restore side, it would read the file, validate its contents, recreate the list if necessary, and restore the saved settings and memberships. On the *Postorius* side, I would implement the user-facing workflow for this feature. This would include an option for list owners or administrators to download a backup file for a specific list, as well as a page where they can upload and restore that file when needed. For the initial version, I plan to keep the feature focused and reliable by covering configuration and membership data first, while leaving more complex areas such as archives or other external components out of scope unless they are explicitly expected. *Questions:* 1. For the first version, what exactly should be included in the per-list backup: only settings and memberships, or also items like templates, ban lists, and member preferences? 2. Should the main export and restore implementation live in Mailman Core, with Postorius mainly responsible for the UI and workflow? 3. Is a *versioned JSON format* the preferred choice for the backup file? 4. Should restore only support creating or recreating a list from backup, or should it also support restoring into an already existing list?Thank you for your time and feedback. Please feel free to *suggest any changes or improvements to the proposed implementation*, also if possible hope i can get answers for the above questions which will be helpful for my proposal, I would be happy to incorporate them.:) Best regards, Sonika

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Django 5.2 LTS and mailman 3
by dlb-ml＠anl.gov March 13, 2026

March 13, 2026

I noticed that Django 4.2 is nearing EOL status in April (no specific day in April is given): https://www.djangoproject.com/download/ I also noticed that there's a planned update to add support for 5.2 to mailman-web: https://gitlab.com/mailman/mailman-web/-/blob/master/README.rst Is this expected to be released before 4.2 goes EOL? Is there a rough time line? Thanks!

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venv and upgrade from python 3.11 to 3.13 because of OS-upgrade
by Andreas Vetter March 13, 2026

March 13, 2026

Hi, I have a venv installation (mailman postorius django-mailman3 hyperkitty mailman-web) with python 3.11 from the Linux distribution. Since distribution EOL nears, I checked python version in next distribution and it is python 3.13. So my guess is, after distro upgrade, this will stop working. How should I upgrade? -- Mit freundlichen Gruessen, Andreas Vetter

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Where to start looking?
by Paul Tomblin March 12, 2026

March 12, 2026

So I imported all our mailman2 lists into mailman3, and it appears it didn't preserve passwords. So my wife (who administers 3 lists of her own) tried to use the reset password link (multiple times) but she never gets the email. I don't see any outgoing email to her in mail.log, or any of the mailman logs. I do the exact same thing as her and I get the email. Any suggestions on what I should be looking for? -- Paul Tomblin

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