Question

Incomplete Page Examples:

• TWikiTutorial
  • in the "Editing a topic and creating hyperlinked pages:"
  • it got all the way to "Notice how WikiWords are linked automatically; there is no link i" <--- display ended here.

• TWikiPreferences
  • http-equiv meta tags for edit <--- display ended here.

• WebPreferences
  • Got all the way into generating the TWiki footer:

         Topic WebPreferences . { Edit | <A href="/twiki/bin/search/TWiki/? 
         scope=text&web=all®ex=on&search=Web%20*Pref

Yet other pages (even large ones, work fine):

• TWiki.Variables
• TWikiInstallationGuide
• TWikiHistory

I've noticed that on almost all of the pages that don't complete, the file size that was served up, as reported by MS IE "file, properties" is 5095 bytes.

• TWiki version: 15March2001Beta
• Web server: Apache 1.3.6
• Server OS: SunOS 5.6
• Perl: 5.005_03
• Browser: occurs with either MS IE 5.5 or Netscape 4.72

-- MikeBarton - 21 May 2001

I've been working only with the TWikiTutorial page now. That will reliably generate the problem.

From the Apache error_log:

[Mon May 21 16:12:15 2001] view: print on closed filehandle TWiki::Store::FILE at TWiki/Store.pm line 639.

I appears that the message "print on closed filehandle TWiki::Store::FILE at TWiki/Store.pm line 639" was caused by file permission problems. Once I had that resolved, the pages are still served up incomplete, but I no longer get the webserver error_log message.

-- MikeBarton - 22 May 2001

I reverted to the Dec 1, 2000 production release. The same problem is occuring. However, no message shows up in the web server error log.

I'm now convinced it something to do with my system: either my installation, Perl, or web server, or something else.

-- MikeBarton - 22 May 2001

Answer

The 15 Mar 2001 version is running on several sites. Most probably not a TWiki issue. Try to insert &TWiki::writeDebug statments before print statements in the view script and check the data/debug.txt file if all HTML text is there.

Check if other cgi-scripts on your system have the same problem. Check the Server settings.

Same as TestenvErrorOnTWikiBeta15March2001.

-- PeterThoeny - 03 Jun 2001

Followup

I just upgraded to 15 Mar 2001 and I am also having this problem, particularly on TWiki.WebChanges and other long pages such as TWiki.TWikiHistory.

• TWiki version: 15March2001Beta
• Web server: Apache 1.3.12
• Server OS: Red Hat Linux 6.2
• Perl: 5.005_03
• Browser: MS IE 5.0 (over dialin only)

Currently this happens over a dialin modem VPN link, which is a bit slow but fine for other sites such as the May2000 TWiki on our intranet (though I may not have tested long pages). Here are the Linux commands I did for this upgrade (from a Dec2000 version in the same twiki-test directory) - all directories are under my home directory:

# Preserve old twiki-test setup
 1007  cd public_html/twiki-test/
 1009  mv pub pub-dec2000
 1010  mkdir pub
 1017  cd
 1018  mv twiki-test/ dec2000-rel-twiki-test
 1020  mkdir twiki-test
 1021  vi dec2000-rel-twiki-test/Notes
# Unzip
 1031  unzip -l TWiki20010315beta.zip
 1032  mkdir March-beta
 1033  cd March-beta/
 1035  unzip ../TWiki20010315beta.zip
# Create new setup
 1037  cp -r bin data templates/ readme.txt TW* ../twiki-test/
 1042  cd ../twiki-test
 1043  ln  -s ~/public_html/twiki-test/pub pub
# Customise TWiki.cfg based on previous config
 1047  vi TWiki.cfg
# Copy pub files into symlinked directory
 1053  cp -r pub/* ~/public_html/twiki-test/pub/
# Fix and check permissions
 1061  cd twiki-test
 1062  chmod -R go+w data pub/
 1064  find . -print | xargs ls -ld | less

Also, my Apache error log looks like this - the perms problem was fixed some time after 23:30, I think, removing the error message as in MikeBarton's report:

rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/Test/RCS/TestTopic1.txt,v: No such file or d
irectory
[Sun Jun  3 23:21:51 2001] save: Can't create file /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data
/Test/TestTopic1.txt
[Sun Jun  3 23:21:51 2001] save: print on closed filehandle TWiki::Store::FILE a
t TWiki/Store.pm line 648.
[Sun Jun  3 23:21:51 2001] save: Can't create file /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data
/Test/TestTopic1.lock
[Sun Jun  3 23:21:51 2001] save: print on closed filehandle TWiki::Store::FILE a
t TWiki/Store.pm line 648.
[Sun Jun  3 23:21:51 2001] save: print on closed filehandle TWiki::FILE at TWiki
.pm line 221.
rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/Test/RCS/TestTopic1.txt,v: No such file or d
irectory
rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/TWiki/RCS/TWikiTutorialKK.txt,v: No such fil
e or directory
rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/TWiki/RCS/TWikiTutorialKK.txt,v: No such fil
e or directory
rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/TWiki/RCS/TWikiTutorialKK.txt,v: No such fil
e or directory
rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/TWiki/RCS/TWikiTutorialKK.txt,v: No such fil
e or directory
rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/TWiki/RCS/TWikiTutorialKK.txt,v: No such fil
e or directory
rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/TWiki/RCS/TWikiTutorialKK.txt,v: No such fil
e or directory
rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/TWiki/RCS/TWikiTutorialKK.txt,v: No such fil
e or directory
rlog: /home/rdonkin/twiki-test/data/TWiki/RCS/TWikiTutorialKK.txt,v: No such fil
e or directory

-- RichardDonkin - 03 Jun 2001

Hmm, second report, lets reopen this. Could you Mike or Richard insert &TWiki::writeDebug statments with the print text, right before the print statements in the view script and check the data/debug.txt file if all HTML text is there?

-- PeterThoeny - 05 Jun 2001

I'll have a go at doing this. Since Monday am I've been on the LAN at work, and have not had this problem at all despite trying to reproduce it (e.g. the history page, documentation page, BookView search on all webs). So it may be related to dialin over a modem - perhaps Apache or IE5.0 reacts badly to pages that are being downloaded too slowly? It would also be worth looking into Apache bugs in this area. Mike - are you getting this on the LAN?

Non-factors: our dialin VPN setup works fine for other applications such as Outlook, so I don't think that's a factor. I don't really think this is a TWiki bug, and it's not necessarily related to March beta - the weekend was the first time I tried using long TWiki pages via a VPN dialin, and was when I upgraded. It's also not page specific, e.g. I've had it on TWikiHistory though MikeBarton has not. The client system was the same laptop on the dialin and LAN tests.

I've updated the system details in my original followup. Common factors appear to be Apache 1.3.x and Perl 5.005_03 - the OSs are different as are the browsers.

-- RichardDonkin - 05 Jun 2001

I have re-tested this at home via VPN dialin, and the problem hasn't happened, either on the May2000 TWiki (which never had this problem) or the March2001 beta. I tested the history page, the documentation page, and BookView search on all webs - all fine with no problems.

My only hypothesis is that this problem is loosely connected to permissions - it seems as if it happened for a while after the permissions were fixed, but has then not recurred. Rather weird... I'll leave the debug enabled (dumps whole page to debug.txt) for a few more days - if I've not seen the problem again I'll upgrade our main installation as soon as I get time.

One thing I forgot to mention is that when the problem did happen earlier, I got an IE5 error saying something about 'server closed connection' (from memory), which sounds vaguely like the log messages about writing on a closed filehandle.

-- RichardDonkin - 05 Jun 2001

(I appologize for the lapse in time--I was on vacation).

I have only been connecting via the LAN.

I also tried TWikiHistory. In this case, it got through most of the file, but terminated in the footer. So, TWikiHistory was breaking for me also. I notice that I thought it was working previously (21-May).

Then, I inserted a couple of writeDebug statements. Specifically, I added a writeDebug ("$tmpl"); After having added that, TWikiHistory always works. I still fails on TWikiTutorial. However, the debug.txt file does contain the complete HTML source.

I tried other cgi scripts on this server. Many of them are also are incomplete when displayed on the browser, but are correct when executed from the command line. It's probably something wrong with the web server configuration.

I have proceeded to use the Beta on a Linux machine and it's going fine. I'm convinced that it is not a TWiki defect.

If you have other ideas I can try, will continue to work them.

-- MikeBarton - 12 Jun 2001

Mike, have a look at my research into Apache bugs, and some suggestions, at IncompletePagesOnDec012000Rel (same problem but different TWiki release). I can't reproduce the problem at the moment, so it's hard for me to do much with this.

I agree that it is not a TWiki problem, I suspect an interaction of Apache and the OS, particularly with CGI scripts - all reports so far involve Apache, two on Solaris and one on Linux.

-- RichardDonkin - 12 Jun 2001