Mailman on Plesk server is not saving messages in archive: [Errno 13] Permission denied

Symptoms

• Mailman is not saving received messages and sent messages are not delivered to recipients

• One of the following errors is found in the log file /var/log/mailman/error:

  mlist.ArchiveMail(msg)
   File "/usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/Archiver/Archiver.py", line 200, in ArchiveMail 
   self.__archive_to_mbox(msg) 
   File "/usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/Archiver/Archiver.py", line 169, in __archive_to_mbox 
   mbox = self.__archive_file(afn) 
   File "/usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/Archiver/Archiver.py", line 157, in __archive_file 
   return Mailbox.Mailbox(open(afn, 'a+')) 
   IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/lib/mailman/archives/private/example.mbox/example.mbox'

  ---

  (1860) Archive file access failure: /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/example.mbox/example.mbox [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/lib/mailman/archives/private/example.mbox/example.mbox'
   (1860) Uncaught runner exception: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/lib/mailman/archives/private/example.mbox/example.mbox'

• The ownership of the directory /var/lib/mailman/archives/private differs from apache:mailman:

  # ls -ld /var/lib/mailman/archives/private
  drwxrws— 8 mailman apache 4096 Apr 13 08:31 /var/lib/mailman/archives/private

• The http://lists.example.com/pipermail/list_name link with the Archive is not accessible with the error:

  403 Forbidden

Cause

Incorrect ownership on the directory /var/lib/mailman/archives/private.

Resolution

1. Connect to the server via SSH

2. Set the correct ownership for the directory /var/lib/mailman/archives/private:

   # chown apache.mailman /var/lib/mailman/archives/private
   # chown -R .mailman /var/lib/mailman/archives/private/*