5.8. What version of Python is required for Mailman 2.1.5 and 2.1.9?

This is the other side of the same issue discussed in Mailman FAQ entry 4.42 at <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.042.htp>.

You may see a sequence of error messages which looks something like this:

 Dec 13 00:31:03 2004 (24653) Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 111, in _oneloop
    self._onefile(msg, msgdata)
  File "/Users/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 167, in _onefile
    keepqueued = self._dispose(mlist, msg, msgdata)
  File "/Users/mailman/Mailman/Queue/IncomingRunner.py", line 130, in _dispose
    more = self._dopipeline(mlist, msg, msgdata, pipeline)
  File "/Users/mailman/Mailman/Queue/IncomingRunner.py", line 153, in _dopipeline
    sys.modules[modname].process(mlist, msg, msgdata)
  File "/Users/mailman/Mailman/Handlers/Moderate.py", line 67, in process
    ModeratedMemberPost)
  File "/Users/mailman/Mailman/Handlers/Hold.py", line 214, in hold_for_approval
    id = mlist.HoldMessage(msg, reason, msgdata)
  File "/Users/mailman/Mailman/ListAdmin.py", line 180, in HoldMessage
    id = self.__nextid()
  File "/Users/mailman/Mailman/ListAdmin.py", line 113, in __nextid
    while True:
 NameError: global name 'True' is not defined

See the thread including the message by Barry Warsaw at <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-developers/2004-May/016889.html>.

In short, Mailman 2.1.5 needs recent versions of Python to support it, specifically Python 2.3. If you're using RedHat or Debian-Stable versions of Linux, or Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar", you may need to install Python 2.3 from source.

For further details, see <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-developers/2004-May/016903.html>, <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-developers/2004-May/016892.html>, <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-developers/2004-May/016893.html>, and the message by Jim Tittsler at <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2004-December/041324.html>.

For more on the requirements of Mailman 2.1.5, see <What MTA features are required for use with Mailman 2.1.5?>.

Note that this is considered to be a bug in version 2.1.5. The version of Mailman 2.1.x currently in CVS has been fixed so that it should work with older versions of Python (including as old as Python 2.1), and this will be incorporated into the 2.1.6 release version. However, Python 2.3 (or later) is still strongly recommended.

• Update: Note that Mailman 2.1.9 was released with source code changes that also require Python 2.3 (or later). In all likelihood, this will be fixed (again), but in the meanwhile your options are to either fix the source code yourself (see <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2006-September/053296.html>, or to upgrade your version of Python.

Also note that Mailman versions earlier than 2.1.9 are incompatible with Python 2.5. At this point in time, Python 2.5 is not considered to be "fully baked", and we recommend that you avoid this version if at all possible. Instead, use the latest minor version from the Python 2.4.x tree. We will update this entry when Python 2.5 has progressed to the point where we recommend using it.

Last changed on Mon Feb 12 20:08:41 2007 by Brad Knowles Converted from the Mailman FAQ Wizard

This is one of many Frequently Asked Questions.