Question

i'm having the worst time trying to figure out how to restrict who can and how cannot make changes to any TWiki Webs i have. i must be missing something obvious, but if i go to TWikiPreferences (or WebPreferences), and add a line

• Set DENYWEBCHANGES = TwikiName

well, nothing happens. i can still edit as much as i want. So, i went into access.pm, uncommented all the debug lines, and here's what i get in the debug logfile:

checkAccessPermission: Type CHANGE, user TwikiName, topic WebPreferences Topic ALLOWTOPICCHANGE: {} Prefs DENYWEBCHANGE: {TWik.TWikiGuest} Prefs ALLOWWEBCHANGE: {} return 1, allow is undefined

Where does "TWik.TWikiGuest" come from? no idea, greped for this everywhere, no luck. (notice the missing 'i'?) i'm furstrated, it seems like i'm missing something obvious.

• TWiki version: Twiki-20001201
• Web server: Apache 1.3.13
• Server OS: Unix

-- TWikiGuest - 16 Jun 2001

Answer

It looks like basic authentication is not enabled. TWiki needs the REMOTE_USER env variable set for the edit scripts and some other scripts, which happens when you enable basic authentication with the .htaccess file. If not, you get the "TWik.TWikiGuest" because the REMOTE_USER is not set. Please follow the installation notes.

-- PeterThoeny - 16 Jun 2001

Follow-up

Blah, looks like it was yet another case of perl being too old. Upgraded to 5.6.0 and things now just work. sorry for the hassle.

-- TWikiGuest - 17 Jun 2001