On Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 8:37 AM Thomas Krichel <krichel@openlib.org> wrote:
Washington Odhiambo writes
Mixing-and-match of virtualenv and OS package install will lead to lots of pain chasing ghosts - as you can already see.
That is why I am now trying to first clean out the complete installation of mailman3 on my machine, where I also have an installation of mailman2 running for added complication. I have tried to carefully examine what needs to go, and now have come up with
root@server # systemctl daemon-reload root@server # systemctl stop mailman3 root@server # systemctl stop mailman3-web.service root@server # apt purge postgresql root@server # apt purge mailman3 root@server # apt purge mailman3-web root@server # apt purge python3-django-mailman3 root@server # find /etc/ -name '*mailman3*' -type f -delete root@server # rm -r /etc/mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/local/mailman/ root@server # rm -r /opt/mailman/ root@server # rm -r /var/lib/postgresql/ root@server # rm -r /usr/lib/mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/share/mailman3 root@server # rm -r /var/log/mailman3 root@server # rm -r /var/lib/mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/share/doc/mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/share/mailman3-web/ root@server # rm -r /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/hyperkitty/templates/django_mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/postorius/templates/django_mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/django_mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/django_mailman3/templates/django_mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/share/doc/python3-django-mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/share/python3-django-mailman3 root@server # rm -r /usr/share/python3-django-mailman3/static/django-mailman3 root@server # rm /var/tmp/mailman3* root@server # find /root/.cache/ -name 'mailman*' -delete root@server # rm -r /usr/local/mailman/ root@server # rm -r /opt/mailman
This may be useful to somebody in a similar situation.
Doesn't 'apt purge -y mailman3 mailman3-web python3-django-mailman3 && apt autoremove -y && \apt autoclean' achieve the same for a package-based installation? I'd keep /etc/mailman3 and /opt/mailman and just do chown -R mailman: those two directories. I find it easy to edit files in /etc/mailman3/ as user mailman. Anyway, best of luck. You are now on the right track.
-- 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]