Permissions Error on /var/mail/mailman
I am going in circles between postfix issues and mailman. However, before I continue with postfix debugging I want to resolve this first as it may be related for all I know. I'm getting this error in the postfix mail log:
2026-02-01T11:00:10.106626-05:00 dap002 postfix/local[113730]: 01623500076: to=<mailman@myhost.localdomain>, orig_to=<mailman>, relay=local, delay=0.16, de lays=0.11/0.01/0/0.04, dsn=5.2.0, status=bounced (cannot update mailbox /var/mail/mailman for user mailman. cannot open file: Permission denied)
I'm not sure why mailman is trying to write to that file but it is owned by root:mail. It is obvious why permission is denied to mailman. Is that directory really part of mailman3 and if so what should ownership and permissions be? If not then why is mailman trying to write to it? That path does not appear in any of the files in /etc/mailman3.
On 2/3/26 10:28, dap1--- via Mailman-users wrote:
I am going in circles between postfix issues and mailman. However, before I continue with postfix debugging I want to resolve this first as it may be related for all I know. I'm getting this error in the postfix mail log:
2026-02-01T11:00:10.106626-05:00 dap002 postfix/local[113730]: 01623500076: to=<mailman@myhost.localdomain>, orig_to=<mailman>, relay=local, delay=0.16, de lays=0.11/0.01/0/0.04, dsn=5.2.0, status=bounced (cannot update mailbox /var/mail/mailman for user mailman. cannot open file: Permission denied)
I'm not sure why mailman is trying to write to that file but it is owned by root:mail. It is obvious why permission is denied to mailman. Is that directory really part of mailman3 and if so what should ownership and permissions be? If not then why is mailman trying to write to it? That path does not appear in any of the files in /etc/mailman3.
Postfix is trying to deliver mail to a mailman@... address to the local
user mailman. The user:group of the file /var/lib/mailman should be
mailman:mail. if you sudo chown mailman /var/lib/mailman, those
messages will be delivered to that mailbox and you can see what they are.
What are all the log messages from grep 01623500076 /var/log/mail.log?
Possibly you have set
site_owner: mailman
in mailman.cfg which would cause Mailman to send various notices to the
local mailman user.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
I have site owner set to my email address,
grep 01623500076 /var/log/mail.log
2026-02-01T11:00:10.006412-05:00 dap002 postfix/pickup[113387]: 01623500076: uid=1001 from=<mailman> 2026-02-01T11:00:10.017044-05:00 dap002 postfix/cleanup[113728]: 01623500076: message-id=<20260201160010.01623500076@dap002.localdomain> 2026-02-01T11:00:10.055506-05:00 dap002 postfix/qmgr[66308]: 01623500076: from=<mailman@dap002.localdomain>, size=6012, nrcpt=1 (queue active) 2026-02-01T11:00:10.106626-05:00 dap002 postfix/local[113730]: 01623500076: to=<mailman@dap002.localdomain>, orig_to=<mailman>, relay=local, delay=0.16, de lays=0.11/0.01/0/0.04, dsn=5.2.0, status=bounced (cannot update mailbox /var/mail/mailman for user mailman. cannot open file: Permission denied) 2026-02-01T11:00:10.140212-05:00 dap002 postfix/bounce[113731]: 01623500076: sender non-delivery notification: 19ED7500078 2026-02-01T11:00:10.182157-05:00 dap002 postfix/bounce[113731]: 01623500076: postmaster non-delivery notification: 227BC50007D 2026-02-01T11:00:10.183279-05:00 dap002 postfix/qmgr[66308]: 01623500076: removed
I assume you meant sudo chown mailman /var/mail/mailman.
On 2/3/26 11:47, dap1--- via Mailman-users wrote:
I assume you meant sudo chown mailman /var/mail/mailman.
Yes, That's what I meant. After you do that, any further such messages should be delivered to that mbox where you can see what they are.
-- Mark Sapiro <mark@msapiro.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
After making that change the error has gone away. However there is nothing written to that file/directory. Strange.
dap1--- via Mailman-users writes:
After making that change the error has gone away. However there is nothing written to that file/directory. Strange.
The enhanced status code was 5.2.0, which is a permanent failure due to mailbox unavailability. So there won't be a retry and there's no particular reason to expect something to be written there.
How frequently was this error observed?
-- GNU Mailman consultant (installation, migration, customization) Sirius Open Source https://www.siriusopensource.com/ Software systems consulting in Europe, North America, and Japan
On 2/4/2026 11:29 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
dap1--- via Mailman-users writes:
After making that change the error has gone away. However there is nothing written to that file/directory. Strange.
The enhanced status code was 5.2.0, which is a permanent failure due to mailbox unavailability. So there won't be a retry and there's no particular reason to expect something to be written there.
How frequently was this error observed?
This occurred every time mailman attempted to distribute an email.
Dennis Putnam via Mailman-users writes:
On 2/4/2026 11:29 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
How frequently was this error observed?
This occurred every time mailman attempted to distribute an email.
And has mailman attempted to distribute a post since you changed the permissions?
-- GNU Mailman consultant (installation, migration, customization) Sirius Open Source https://www.siriusopensource.com/ Software systems consulting in Europe, North America, and Japan
On 2/4/2026 3:12 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
Dennis Putnam via Mailman-users writes:
On 2/4/2026 11:29 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
How frequently was this error observed?
This occurred every time mailman attempted to distribute an email.
And has mailman attempted to distribute a post since you changed the permissions?
Yes but now I have a postfix problem I am trying to resolve with them.
participants (4)
-
dap1＠bellsouth.net -
Dennis Putnam
-
Mark Sapiro -
Stephen J. Turnbull