Bug 214247

Summary: mailman mm_cfg.py is symlink in /etc and it shouldn't be
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Eric Hopper <eric-bugs>
Component: mailmanAssignee: Tomas Smetana <tsmetana>
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 6   
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2007-04-30 07:23:18 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Eric Hopper 2006-11-06 19:39:07 UTC 
ls -l /etc/mailman/mm_cfg.py reveals that it is a symlink to
/usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py .  It should be the other way around.

I'm trying to put all the things I change in my /etc directory under version
control to make future upgrades go more smoothly, and to track what config
changes I've made.

My version control tool won't handle symlinks, and even if it did it wouldn't be
storing the contents of the file being pointed at, but the contents of the
pointer.  Things in /etc shouldn't be symlinks.
Comment 1 Harald Hoyer 2006-11-07 12:46:47 UTC 
right.
Comment 2 Tomas Smetana 2007-04-24 12:34:37 UTC 
This comment can be found in the mailman.spec file:

Create a link so that the config file mm_cfg.py appears in config directory
/etc/mailman. We don't put mm_cfg.py in the config directory because its
executable code (python file) and the security policy wants to keep executable
code out of /etc and inside of a lib directory instead, and because
traditionally mm_cfg.py was in the Mailman subdirectory and experienced mailman
admins will expect to find it there.

It's really difficult to decide which is right. I would appreciate any comments
about this.
Comment 3 Eric Hopper 2007-04-24 14:42:40 UTC 
The only comment I have is that it would sure be nice if I could version control
/etc and have it catch everything I cared about.  :-)  I suppose mm_cfg.py is
executable.  You could put potentially anything in there, but in practice all it
does is set a whole bunch of variables, much like any other config file.

In the interests of making my version control scheme work, I've already swapped
it so the /etc one is the real file and there's a symlink in /usr/lib/Mailman
Comment 4 Tomas Smetana 2007-04-30 07:23:18 UTC 
Well. I don't like the idea of taking mm_cfg.py off the Mailman tree. Anyone who
administers mailman is also used to have the config file in /usr/lib/mailman. So
I think the symlink in /etc is a better compromise.