Enable group mailing list in Server.app not working

Thanks for your help Mark23!

I would prefer not to have "yet another" place where I have to specify who belongs to which group. There is already an LDAP group with a list of users, this should be sufficient. Concerning mailman, it is probably an overkill for what I am trying to do.

But I found the solution to my problem. Here is what I did:

1. Use Directory Utility to add the field "EMailAddress" to the group considered, and specify the group email address in this field.

2. Create a file /etc/postfix/ldap-groups.cf or /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/ldap-groups.cf and edit it with the following content (where server01 is obviously the name of the server):

version = 3

server_host = localhost

search_base = cn=groups,dc=server01,dc=pretendco,dc=net

query_filter = (mail=%s)

result_attribute = memberUid

result_format = %u@pretendco.net

3. Test the configuration by typing

postmap -q (EMailAddress)@pretendco.net ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-groups.cf

where (EmailAddress)@pretendco.net is the group email address. You should see a list of the users belonging to the group.

4. Edit the file /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/main.cf and put the following two lines at the end:

virtual_maps = ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-groups.cf

virtual_alias_maps = $virtual_maps

5. Restart postfix

sudo postfix reload

It works for me.

That's the point if my first post ! The "Enable group mailing list" option does not work for me :-< Of course, I would rather use it instead of what I suggest in my previous post. And, as I said in my first post, this option does not even seem to be documented in the advanced administration guide of ML server (which might be a bad sign).

Can you tell me if you manage to make it work ? Thanks.

And no, this was not an option in Lion.

Ok, I tried as you said. Turning the option off, clicking on done, and turning the option back on, clicking on done again, does not change the /etc/aliases file at all :-< Nor does it change /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/aliases. Any other thought? Thanks.

Checked. I had already upgraded to 10.8.1.

Hello Mark23 and thanks for your help !

The log says nothing particular when I (un)set the "Enable Group Mailing List Option". The only difference I see is a line saying mail_groups[127]: sleeping for: 1 hour(s). I have no idea what this means exactly. Googling it did not help me much either.

I post the /etc/aliases file below. Interesting : every time I (un)set the "Enable Group Mailing List" option, the /etc/aliases last access time changes. But the md5 hash of the file stays the same.

I guess that the "sudo newaliases" uses /etc/aliases to construct the binary database file /etc/aliases.db ? It seems that this script is run every time I (un)check the option since the access time of *both* /etc/aliases and /etc/aliases.db are changed to the current time.

Do you have any other option checked ?

Here is my /etc/aliases (I removed the blocks of comments at the beginning and at the end):

# Person who should get root's mail. Don't receive mail as root!

#root: you

# Basic system aliases -- these MUST be present

MAILER-DAEMON: postmaster

postmaster: root

# General redirections for pseudo accounts

bin: root

daemon: root

named: root

nobody: root

uucp: root

www: root

ftp-bugs: root

postfix: root

# Put your local aliases here.

# ==== Begin auto-generated section ========================================

# This section of the aliases file is auto-generated by server admin tools

# Please do not edit this section or your modifications will be lost

# === End auto-generated section ===========================================

# Well-known aliases

manager: root

dumper: root

operator: root

abuse: postmaster

# trap decode to catch security attacks

decode: root

I have news.

I tried the following :

1. Create a new group

2. Add a member to this group

3. Activate the option "Enable Group mailing list"

This indeed makes the necessary change in /etc/profiles and updates /etc/profiles.db

But :

4. Add another member to this group

The file /etc/profiles is *not* updated accordingly (although its modification time is set to the current time). This is not what one would expect. Then :

5. Turn the option off, click on Done

The file /etc/profiles is updated (and looks exactly as it was initially).

6. Turn the option back on, click on Done

The file /etc/profiles is correctly updated and shows the two group users.

One would expect the /etc/profiles file to be updated as soon as a modification is made to the members of the group. Could you please confirm that the behavious I am experiencing is the same on your system ?

Thanks again for your help.