380375 - The local XML file './data/bugzilla-update.xml' cannot be created if the proxy requires authentication

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Bugzilla :: Installation & Upgrading, defect)

Description

[Austin]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.10) Gecko/20070313 Fedora/1.5.0.10-5.fc6 Firefox/1.5.0.10
Build Identifier: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/webtools/bugzilla-3.0.tar.gz

Similar to bug# 350112, but that was for RC1 and I'm using final release (9th May?).

Back ground:
Upgrade from bugzilla-2.22.2-1.fc6 to bugzilla v3.0.
Created new /usr/local/bugzilla-3.0 directory.
Linked in old data/ from existing bugzilla installation.
Linked in old localconfig from /etc/bugzilla/
As root, ran checkconfig.pl
Updated / Installed perl-* modules it recommended via yumex.
Re ran checkconfig.pl as root, and everything seemed fine.

Visit new website, and I receive the following message:
The local XML file './data/bugzilla-update.xml' cannot be created. Please make sure the web server can write in this directory.

The new directory, and all sub directories were modified by the checkconfig.pl script to be root:apache rwxrwx---

All permissions are checked and every time the web page shows this message.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Detailed above.
2.
3.
Actual Results:  
Message as detailed above on webpage.

Expected Results:  
Not to have that message.

Most other information I could supply didn't seem important (using Pg DB, etc).

httpd is being run as apache.

/var/log/httpd/error_log shows:
[Fri May 11 15:54:48 2007] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] [Fri May 11 15:54:48 2007] index.cgi: Use of uninitialized value in substitution (s///) at (eval 40) line 44.
[Fri May 11 15:54:48 2007] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] [Fri May 11 15:54:48 2007] index.cgi: Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at Bugzilla/CGI.pm line 287.
[Fri May 11 15:57:53 2007] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] [Fri May 11 15:57:53 2007] index.cgi: Use of uninitialized value in substitution (s///) at (eval 40) line 44.
[Fri May 11 15:57:53 2007] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] [Fri May 11 15:57:53 2007] index.cgi: Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at Bugzilla/CGI.pm line 287.

Comment 1

[Jeremy Baron]

Are you using SELinux?

Comment 2

[Austin]

[root@localhost ~]# getenforce 
Disabled

Comment 3

[Richard]

I had the same problem.  The cause was my firewall - the application was trying to contact landfill.bugzilla.org to check for new releases.  When it couldn't, it threw up a generic error about being unable to write to the directory.

Comment 4

[Austin]

Fedora released v3.0 for FC6 and the error message is in there too, albeit in a slightly different form:

The local XML file '/var/lib/bugzilla/data/bugzilla-update.xml' cannot be created. Please make sure the web server can write in this directory.

If as you say, it can't access the 'net to find a file to download, then it should perhaps check for environment proxy variables (http_proxy anyone?). It should also change the error message to "can't access landfill.bugzilla.org", with the ability to say "I don't care, my OS will update me automatically.", so it doesn't splash up on production systems.

Comment 5

[Frédéric Buclin]

(In reply to comment #4)
> should perhaps check for environment proxy variables (http_proxy anyone?).

There is already a parameter named 'proxy_url' (accessible from editparams.cgi) which you have to set correctly when you are behind a proxy. Check this parameter and tell us if this fixes your problem.

Comment 6

[Austin]

Disabling the upgrade-notification works well too. Perhaps the message should link to the editparams.cgi page to adjust what's necessary on a server-by-server basis? At least provide a better error message.

Comment 7

[Frédéric Buclin]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Disabling the upgrade-notification works well too.

No kidding? If the feature is disabled, it won't try to access the web. In comment 5, I asked if setting the correct value for the 'proxy_url' parameter fixes the problem. Could you test that, please (and of course, re-enable the feature when testing)?

Comment 8

[Austin]

I have tried the local proxy in that field, saved changed, and clicked the "home" link to take me back to that page, and the "The local XML file" warning was still there.

How does Bugzilla handle authenticating proxies?

Comment 9

[bigstijn]

I have the same problem.

Because my proxy needs authentication, I have to use 
HTTP_proxy
HTTP_proxy_pass
HTTP_proxy_user

(eg. for activestate ppm)

But, does bugzilla 3.x takes into account the environment variables
HTTP_proxy_pass
HTTP_proxy_user
?

Comment 10

[Frédéric Buclin]

Couldn't you use this syntax: http://user:pass@proxy_url/ ?

Comment 11

[Max Kanat-Alexander]

(In reply to comment #10)
> Couldn't you use this syntax: http://user:pass@proxy_url/ ?

  Isn't LWP::UserAgent capable of taking account of those environment variables? We *really should* be using them if proxy_url isn't specified but the environment variables *are* specified.

Comment 12

[Frédéric Buclin]

If the proxy_url param is blank, Bugzilla::Update asks LWP::UserAgent to use the ENV variable HTTP_PROXY or CGI_HTTP_PROXY, see http://search.cpan.org/~gaas/libwww-perl-5.805/lib/LWP/UserAgent.pm#Proxy_attributes

But if you need authentication, it seems you have to use the syntax from comment 10.

I don't plan to do more as this syntax should work, but what I will do is to make the error message a bit clearer as one case which is not covered in the error message is when you have no connection to the web.

Comment 13

[bigstijn]

Ok, syntax of comment 10 is working.  Thanks for the hint.

Somehow, I do agree with comment 11: if the http_* variables are defined, why not using them.

But if it stays like this, I think it would be good to put this also in the documentation.  I'll check and enter a bug if necessary.(In reply to comment #11)

Comment 14

[Frédéric Buclin]

(In reply to comment #13)
> Somehow, I do agree with comment 11: if the http_* variables are defined, why
> not using them.

Because we don't maintain LWP::UserAgent, which is the module used to connect to bugzilla.org, and if this module doesn't understand them, there is nothing we can do about it.

What we can do however is to update the comment displayed when it cannot get bugzilla-update.xml and suggest the administrator to try a URL as suggested in comment 10.

Comment 15

[Frédéric Buclin]

Attachment: patch, v1

Comment 16

[Frédéric Buclin]

Safe and useful enough to take for 3.0.1.

Comment 17

[Frédéric Buclin]

tip:

Checking in docs/xml/administration.xml;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/docs/xml/administration.xml,v  <--  administration.xml
new revision: 1.73; previous revision: 1.72
done
Checking in template/en/default/index.html.tmpl;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/template/en/default/index.html.tmpl,v  <--  index.html.tmpl
new revision: 1.38; previous revision: 1.37
done
Checking in template/en/default/admin/params/core.html.tmpl;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/template/en/default/admin/params/core.html.tmpl,v  <--  core.html.tmpl
new revision: 1.7; previous revision: 1.6
done


3.0:

Checking in docs/xml/administration.xml;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/docs/xml/administration.xml,v  <--  administration.xml
new revision: 1.70.2.2; previous revision: 1.70.2.1
done
Checking in template/en/default/index.html.tmpl;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/template/en/default/index.html.tmpl,v  <--  index.html.tmpl
new revision: 1.33.2.4; previous revision: 1.33.2.3
done
Checking in template/en/default/admin/params/core.html.tmpl;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/template/en/default/admin/params/core.html.tmpl,v  <--  core.html.tmpl
new revision: 1.5.2.2; previous revision: 1.5.2.1
done