The mailing list for listmasters using Sympa

[Flemming Bjerke <address@concealed>]

Installing sympa on debian 8 - getting started
===============================================

This presupposes a new installation of debian8, Jessie. Postfix, mysql
and apache2 are used to support sympa. Alternative supporting packets
may be used, and the installation may be done in other ways. This
tutorial should give a point of departure for adaptions.

You must have a domain or subdomain you will use for sympa (example.com
or sub.example.com) which must have DNS setup (an a-record and a mx-record).

First install supporting packets:

apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client postfix apache2

Now install sympa. You must have the root password for mysql ready.
During installation, say yes to dbconfig.

apt-get install sympa

SETTING UP

Set up sympa by running:

sympa_wizard

You must at leaat specify the following:

domain       example.com (OR:sub.example.com)
listmaster     your-administrator-email (e.g. address@concealed)
title        The title of your sympa site
http_host    http://example.com/wws (OR: http://sub.example.com/wws)

(More detailed setup may be done by editing the sympa.conf file:
nano /etc/sympa/sympa.conf
and thne restart sympa:
/etc/init.d/sympa restart)


SUDOERS

Then, allow sympa to be run by apache (user www-data):

sudoedit /etc/sudoers

Add one line containing:

www-data ALL = (sympa)  NOPASSWD:
/usr/lib/cgi-bin/sympa/wwsympa-wrapper.fcgi

APACHE2

Now, set up apache2:

nano
/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf


Add before </Virtualhost>:

       Alias /static-sympa /var/lib/sympa/static_content
       ScriptAlias /sympa /usr/lib/cgi-bin/sympa/wwsympa-wrapper.fcgi
       <Directory "/var/lib/sympa/static_content">
           Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
           Order allow,deny
           Allow from all
           Require all granted
       </Directory>

The result should be something like:

<VirtualHost  *:80>
   DocumentRoot /var/www/html
   ServerName example.com
   ServerAlias *.example.com
   Alias /static-sympa /var/lib/sympa/static_content
   ScriptAlias /sympa /usr/lib/cgi-bin/sympa/wwsympa-wrapper.fcgi
   <Directory "/var/lib/sympa/static_content">
      Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
      Require all granted
   </Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable apache to use cgi-scripts and disable fastcgi-scripts:

a2dismod fcgid
a2enmod cgi

Reload apache2:

service apache2 reload

SEE IF IT WORKS

Now, check in a browser whether sympa turns up:
http://example.com/sympa

If it works, hit first login, and add the email of the listmaster.