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List:       postfix-users
Subject:    Re: setup issue -- debian /ubuntu 16.04.1 "bad string length 0 < 1: setgid_group ="
From:       Scott Kitterman <postfix () kitterman ! com>
Date:       2020-05-31 20:41:58
Message-ID: 1881652.lx7SQNgxVN () sk-desktop
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On Sunday, May 31, 2020 4:31:23 PM EDT Gary Aitken wrote:
> On 5/31/20 11:34 AM, Matus UHLAR - fantomas wrote:
> >> I'm new to postfix and trying to administer a debian
> >> google-compute box, also new to me (coming from fbsd).  So lots of
> >> opportunities for learning...
> >> 
> >> I modified /etc/crontable to fire off some backup stuff (a shell
> >> script that does a "gcloud compute disks snapshot ...".  Cron logs
> >> attempting to start the script, then logs: cron[1214]: sendmail:
> >> fatal: bad string length 0 < 1: setgid_group =
> >> postfix/sendmail[8628]: fatal: bad string length 0 < 1:
> >> setgid_group =
> >> 
> >> As I did not set this system up, it's not clear to me what has
> >> been properly installed and what came as a result of other stuff.
> >> Initially, I was getting a "/etc/postfix/main.cf: No such file or
> >> directory" error.  I copied main.cf.proto to main.cf without
> >> change, as it seemed to be ok as is.
> >> 
> >> It appears postfix was installed as a result of a mysql
> >> installation:
> >> 
> >> aptitude why postfix: i   automysqlbackup Depends  bsd-mailx |
> >> mailx i A bsd-mailx       Depends  default-mta |
> >> mail-transport-agent i A postfix         Provides
> >> mail-transport-agent
> >> 
> >> but the setup not completed?  This machine is not intended to
> >> serve as a mail server; I only need it to post mail appropriately.
> >> 
> >> I modified /etc/aliases to forward root, then tried sudo
> >> newaliases but I get the same error: newaliases: fatal: bad string
> >> length 0 < 1: setgid_group =
> > 
> > you should try to run:
> > 
> > dpkg --configure -a to configure all packages that aren't configured
> > yet.
> > 
> > however, so far this problem looks more like ubuntu than postfix
> > problem.
> 
> On 5/31/20 10:59 AM, Wietse Venema wrote:
> > Please DO follow a proper Postfix installation procedure.
> > 
> > - Either install from package.
> > 
> > - Or install from source code.
> > 
> > This is not something that you should be fixing by hand.
> 
> Thank you both.  Before doing something stupid...
> This system has been running in a production environment for
> some time, although what the mail situation has been I'm not sure.
> The production environment involves a redmine installation.
> 
> The postfix package was already installed, which is what troubles
> me; it was apparently not properly configured.  Will an attempt to
> reconfigure an already installed and configured package screw
> things up?  Perhaps it was configured automatically by the
> mysqlbackup install?

> debconf-show shows the one item which *has* been configured is
>    postfix/main_mailer_type: No configuration

The Debian configuration that Ubuntu inherits does have an option to not 
configure postfix when installed.  This is intended to  be used by an admin that 
intends to do their own configuration from scratch.  It is not intended to be 
left that way indefinitely.

Unfortunately, when postfix is installed as a package dependency of some 
package that wants a local MTA installed, people don't always configure it.  
Since postfix is the default MTA in Ubuntu (it's not in Debian), that means it 
is not unusual to find Ubuntu installations with postfix that are not well 
configured because it was only installed as a side effect of installing some 
other package.

The advice to use dpkg-reconfigure to set up the basic postfix installation 
(that you may then further configure) is the correct approach here.

Scott K


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