Question

I'm attempting to install TWiki on a hosted Linux platform. I've managed to install it and get the site more or less up and running. I have a number of questions, and suppose I need to ask them in separate topics.

So, the question for this topic is: I noticed on some comments somewhere in the install docs that TWiki was not yet "ready" for RcsLite. Yet I would like to try this, since my host does have RCS, but it's not in the "right" place ( when I tried using it via the config file, I got some nasty message ). Does the included RcsLite work with the Feb 2003 release of TWiki?

Environment

-- ChrisVogel - 15 Apr 2004

Answer

You can enable it but apply the fix described in MonthOutOfRangeWithRcsLite.

-- PeterThoeny - 16 Apr 2004

there is also a minor bug in that WebChanges are sorted alphabetically instead of by modification time for all webs but Twiki. Details and a simple work around in WebChangesSortedWrongly

-- MattWilkie - 16 Apr 2004

Question:

Following Peter's suggestion, I've attempted to apply the fix(es) "described in" MonthOutOfRangeWithRcsLite.

I've edited my RcsLite.pm and RcsFile.pm files as I believe the fix suggests. ( I tried just using the new versions of RcsLite and RcsFile, but that caused an RcsWrap error. PeterThoeny informed me that you can't replace older files with new ones. The interfaces are different. You have to edit the old files, which I have now done ). So..., my site is at least back up and "working".

However, I still don't have revisioning. If I edit a page and save it, the changes are displayed, but if I go back to edit it again, my previous changes are lost.

I've edited TWiki.cfg to use RcsLite ( comment out $storeTopicImpl = "RcsWrap"; and uncomment $storeTopicImpl = "RcsLite"; ). Is this correct? Is this all I need to change? What do I need to change ( if anything ) in TWiki.pm?

I've read the entire topic MonthOutOfRangeWithRcsLite several times, and I guess I'm just dense or something. I don't see any explicit instructions regarding these two files ( TWiki.cfg & TWiki.pm ). I believe I've made the changes to RcsLite.pm and RcsFile.pm suggested in the fix, but I guess I'm not used to the ! syntax. I'm assuming that those are the lines to be changed.

Hope someone can help me.

Regards,

ChrisVogel

Additional Notes:

This could be a File Permissions problem. I've tried manually setting the permissions as described in the Installation Guide. Some files wouldn't let me change to owner "nobody". I did what I could and deleted all the *.txt,v files as suggested.

It is suggested to run chmod and chown several times in the docs. I'm certainly no Linux guru. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting the instruction "chown them to nobody". I've been trying to set the owner with commands like: chown -R nobody: . Should I be setting the group instead?

Regards,

Chris Vogel

In some environments I've had to make everything world writeable, chmod -R 777 data/* ,before I got everything working. This is a security no-no but sometimes one does what one has to. I confess that I have never gotten a good handle on unix permissions. I keep hoping that one more read through the man page will make it all come clear.

-- MattWilkie - 20 Apr 2004

Another Additional Note:

Every time I edit a file, the FileName.txt,v is created with -r--r--r-- permissions. Even if I go in and chmod it to be writable by everyone, as soon as it is edited, the permissions revert to -r--r--r--.

Just for grins I've tried changing the data directory and all files underneath it to owner:group nobody:nobody, but for every file I received the message "operation not permitted".

My testenv file states:

User: myUserName Note: Your CGI scripts are executing as this user. Warning: Since your CGI script is not running as user nobody, you need to change the locks in the *,v RCS files of the TWiki distribution from nobody to myUserName. Otherwise, changes to topics will not be logged by RCS.

The owner:group of my files is indeed myUserName:myUserName. How do I check who has the locks for my files and if incorrect, how do I change them? I've run rlog on some /data files and there is no "locked by: somebody". What's going on?

I just don't get it.

Help! Please

Thanks in advance.

Chris Vogel

hmm, definately strange. If you have deleted the ,v files the warning message from testenv about changing the RCS locks does not apply, because there are no locks then -- they are stored in the ,v file.

Try this: create a new topic, and save it.

1) what are the owner and permissions of TestTopic.txt ? TestTopic.txt,v ? do they match?

2) look at the first ten lines of TestTopic.txt,v , it should look like:

head    1.3;
access;
symbols;
locks
        nobody:1.3; strict;
comment @# @;


1.3
date    2004.04.06.19.29.14;    author MattWilkie;      state Exp;

The important part is nobody:1.3.; strict; 'nobody' (which is the RCS lock) should be the same as #1 above, which should be the same as the CGI user as reported by testenv. It is possible that on your web-host testenv is not picking up the right cgi user, or that your server is using different cgi users in different contexts.

-- MattWilkie - 21 Apr 2004

Hi Matt:

I want to start by saying that I'm very appreciative of your help. Not being able to edit a page makes my site pretty useless.

I created a new topic. The "ls -al" on them is as follows:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 myusername myusername 166 Apr 21 16:07 TestTopic3.txt
-r--r--r-- 1 myusername myusername 166 Apr 21 16:07 TestTopic3.txt,v

As you can see, the owner matches, but the permissions do not.

When I look at the TestTopic3.txt,v file, I see:

head    1.1;
access;
symbols;
locks; strict;
comment @@;


1.1
date    2004.04.21.20.07.35;    author guest;   state Exp;

As you can see, "locks" doesn't have an association with an owner.

Any clues what to try next? Is there something I'm obviously doing wrong?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris Vogel

This is what I get (I'm using RcsWrap) I'm officially out of my depth now, sorry. Go on TWikiIRC and talk to SvenDoweidit, or email him if you can't do that (he's very busy this month so it could take awhile to respond).

$ ls -l testTopic4*
-rw-r--r--    1 nobody   nobody        281 Apr 21 13:55 TestTopic4.txt
-r--r--r--    1 nobody   nobody        469 Apr 21 13:55 TestTopic4.txt,v

$ head -10 TestTopic4.txt,v
head    1.1;
access;
symbols;
locks
        nobody:1.1; strict;
comment @# @;


1.1
date    2004.04.21.20.55.29;    author MattWilkie;      state Exp;

good luck!

-- MattWilkie - 21 Apr 2004

There are a number of fixes suggested on MonthOutOfRangeWithRcsLite and it's hard to see which is "the correct" method. They seem to apply to different versions.

If you want to stay with the production release, try this: 1) revert all your changes to any of the .pm files (probably easiest to just unpack from the zip file). 2) edit line 608 of lib/TWiki/Store.pm and change $date to $epochSec :

# fix suggested by Main.EdWildgoose, Codev.MonthOutOfRangeWithRcsLite
# original: my $dataError = $topicHandler->replaceRevision( $text, $theComment, $user, $date );
my $dataError = $topicHandler->replaceRevision( $text, $theComment, $user, $epochSec );

Since this is a new system, it might be better to try the TWikiBetaRelease which has the fixes in place already. The betas are usually very nearly as stable as the production releases.

-- MattWilkie - 22 Apr 2004

Thanks Matt. I'll give the Beta Release a try. I'm in the process of changing hosts, so it may be a few days.

Best Regards,

Chris Vogel

-- ChrisVogel - 22 Apr 2004