Clever Name TBD

I run a web server (Apache 2.1.x) at work which is the collaboration system for the developers. It provides a Subversion repository and a WebDAV volume we stick shared files onto, etc.

We figure a Wiki will be a cool addition (and, in fact, it really is) so I install PHP 5.0.4 and dokuwiki. While I'm at it, I upgrade from Apache 2.1.1 to 2.1.4 (upgraded APR also), and Subversion from 1.1.4 to 1.2-rc2.

It's all great, the Wiki is awesome (mad props to dokuwiki, it's simple to use and looks nice right out of the box), people are adding to the wiki, yay.

Sometime later, people start complaining that Subversion commits are failing due to some strange permissions error from the server. I look into it and the transactions directory in the repository DB (I'm using FSFS) has directories in it with mode 666 (-rw-rw-rw-). After creating these directories without the execute bit set, it fails to access the files within them and produces this error.

So now I'm wondering what kind of bug Subversion 1.2-rc2 has that wasn't in 1.1.4. I briefly has 1.2.-rc1 installed and it didn't have this problem, so maybe it's a new bug. The Subversion folks weren't biting, since no other such bugs had been reported. Then backing out to Subversion 1.1.4 still had the problem. I'm befuddled. It seems like maybe a umask problem, but it's intermittent, so it's happening in the httpd process. Argh!

We later discover that this problem isn't limited to Subversion. Users of the WebDAV volume are starting to see this issue with newly created files and directories (both cases mode 666, where the usual modes are 755 and 644). It's really not looking like a Subversion bug.

So now I'm building and installing all manner of versions of APR, httpd, and Subversion, trying to isolate this problem to some version of something, and I'm still stumped. I even went as far as to go back to APR 0.9.5, and httpd 2.0.x, older versions than what I had originally, just to have the canonical supported Subversion setup. The only version that I can get to work is the binaries I had from before (which I had cleverly backed up), but that didn't include PHP, which I needed for the WIki.

And then it dawned on me that the other thing I changed was adding PHP to the mix. So I disabled the PHP module and waited. Sure enough, a day later, there have been no permissions problems reported. (Though plenty of "Hey why's the Wiki busted?")

So it appears that PHP 5.0.4 does some strange thing that alters the file mode of files created by httpd to the number of the beast. I won't read too far into that, but I'm going to try PHP 4.3.11, which should be fine for dokuwiki, and see how that fares.

Moral of the story: don't change everything at once. Yes, I've already learned this moral many times.

Posted by Wilfredo Sánchez at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (1)

My friend Brian told me about this cool new Google "Stuff Finder" feature:

Where are my socks?

Now I know.

Posted by Wilfredo Sánchez at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Something sinister is afoot… So a last week, I posted an entry about this building next to (practically in) the Apple campus. I few days later, I accidentally deleted all of the comments posted to that entry before reading them. That was a result of my not being used to the new MovableType and MT-Blacklist hooey I just installed.

But mysterously, this morning people were telling me that the entire entry dissapeared, which was news to me. I certainly didn't delete it. But sure enough, it's not my web log any more, nor can I find it using the web log management page. Now that's just creepy. Perhaps the building coerced me into deleting the post and then wiped my brain. Ew. And maybe the "accidental" deletion of the comments (which may have contained a warning!) wasn't all that accidental after all. Or maybe Mark (it's possible he's been assimilated) snuck onto my machine while I wasn't looking and did something sneaky. I did let Abe use my laptop while I was logged into it. Maybe he's been assimilated. And he's staying at my house for a few days. So much for sleeping…

I then thought that maybe Google could have cached it, so I did a Google search for "wsanchez invisible building apple" and sure enough, there it was. In fact, Google pointed at the original entry, which is still on my server; it had just be removed form the MovableType database and the index pages. I'm guessing TrackBack pings are broken as well.

In an attempt to rectify things, I have created a new entry with the same date and contents as the original. I might have to set the superuser immutable bit on the blog files or something. We'll see if this lasts…

Posted by Wilfredo Sánchez at 05:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you have been to the Apple campus, ever, think of the buildings that are on the Northeast corner of De Anza and Mariani. Everyone I ask knows that there are the six Infinite Loop buildings that are the main Apple campus, and most remember that there is also a BJ's restaurant on the block (or the Peppermill, if you haven't been there in a while). Nobody seems to remember the other building.

There's this other building that's right on the corner. It's pretty non-descript, and thouroughly unmemorable. In fact, I assert that it is anti-memorable, as in it is actively causing everyone who sees it to forget it's there.

I've considered writing down a note about this building for years, and I always forget. Or if I do remember, I end of thinking there's something else more important and I'll get to writing about the invisible building later. Which is, of course, proof that this building is evading detection. At the moment, I'm in Maryland, way on the other side of North America, and apparently out of the mind-altering range of this unnamed building, hence this note.

If you've ever watched the show Alias, you know there's this agency out there called MI-5. Or maybe MI-6; I haven't watched Alias in a while. Anyway, I think they might be in there.

Note to self: Mark went poking in there recently. Don't trust Mark.

Posted by Wilfredo Sánchez at 01:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I am now an Uncle to a very little boy named Matthew. He's pretty OK. You can kind of already tell we're related…

Posted by Wilfredo Sánchez at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Subversion 1.1.4 packages are now on my iDisk.

Posted by Wilfredo Sánchez at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)