What's in Mailman's pickles?

pickle-poke.py

#! /usr/bin/env python2.7

"""
A script to export pickle-ed (*.pck*) files into a corresponding
human-readable form.  This was specifically written to read such
files created by Mailman 2, so this is all Python 2.7

I was given copies of /var/lib/mailman and /etc/mailman.  In order
to go through the files under them, I used Docker (we need old
Mailman libraries to unpickle some of those files, and that is a
little easier with Docker), like so:

 $ docker pull python:2.7.18-slim-stretch
 $ docker run -it -v $(pwd)/var/lib/mailman:/var/lib/mailman \
     python:2.7.18-slim-stretch /bin/bash

(Debian Buster is newer, and Buster's mailman also is a little
newer.  I wanted consistency with the files that I had, hence
Stretch.)

Once inside the container, I did this:

 # apt update && apt install mailman
 # pip install fs

(The python-fs package from Debian didn't work for me.)

And then I ran this script, and it created a bunch of `*.unpickled`
files under `./unpickled`.

"""

import os
import sys
import pickle
import pprint

from fs import open_fs

def write_data(data, outdir, outfile):
    outpath = os.path.join(outdir, outfile)
    with open(outpath, 'wb') as outf:
        try:
            outf.write(data)
        except Exception as err:
            sys.stderr.write("Could not write to {}; error:{} ".
                             format(outpath, err))
        else:
            print("Wrote {}.".format(outpath))

def find_and_unpickle(indir, outdir):
    total = 0
    written = 0
    errors = 0
    directory = open_fs(indir)

    try:
        for path in directory.walk.files(filter=['*.pck', '*.pck.last']):
            total = total + 1
            with directory.open(path, 'rb') as pickle_file:
                print("\nLoading {}...".format(pickle_file.name))

                try:
                    data = pickle.load(pickle_file)
                except Exception as perr:
                    sys.stderr.write("Error loading {}, error: {}".
                                     format(pickle_file.name, perr))
                    errors = errors + 1
                    
                outfile = pickle_file.name.replace('/', '_') + '.unpickled'
                write_data(pprint.pformat(data), outdir, outfile)
                written = written + 1
    except Exception as fserr:
        sys.stderr.write("\nError reading {}: {}\n".
                         format(path, fserr))
        errors = errors + 1

    return total, written, errors

if __name__ == '__main__':
    INDIR = '/var/lib/mailman'
    OUTDIR = './unpickled'

    if not os.path.exists(OUTDIR):
        os.mkdir(OUTDIR)

    total, written, errors = find_and_unpickle(INDIR, OUTDIR)

    print("\nFound {} of what looks like pickles.".format(total))
    print("Re-wrote {}, errors: {}.\n".format(written, errors))

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