SID-00150: "Changes" does not work

Status:	Answered	TWiki version:	4.2.4	Perl version:	5.8.8
Category:	CategorySearch	Server OS:	Windows Server 2008	Last update:	17 years ago

Hi all at TWiki!

I am about to upgrade from TWiki 4.0.4 to current version 4.2.4. I installed 4.2.3 from WIndows Install package, which worked fine. After configuring local settings I upgraded this installation to 4.2.4, which also worked fine. I then copied our 4.0.4 Main TWiki files into the new installation, being very careful not to overwrite any new templates or other 4.2.4 installation wiki files, but merged some changes and settings into those files. Everything looks fine, but: the "Changes" always shows empty log, although I made some major changes as a test in some topics. I searched for hints for this problem and found that the the file ".changes" in data/Main folder shows exactly the topics I had changed for testing. I have no glue what to check next. Perhaps someone can help me?

Thanks in advance Lars

-- LarsNeideck - 03 Mar 2009

Discussion and Answer

The TWiki.WebChanges has a %SEARCH{}%, it looks like something is wrong with search. Check if regular search is on topic name working. Check if GNU grep is installed, check the path to it in {RCS}{EgrepCmd} and {RCS}{EgrepCmd} in configure settings.

-- PeterThoeny - 03 Mar 2009

Hi. GNU grep has been installed by Windows Installer package. Search works fine. I can see my personal changes under "My last activities" correctly. But "Changes" are not working. Why do you say %SEARCH{}%? Isnt WebChanges created by changes.pm?

-- LarsNeideck - 04 Mar 2009

The bin/changes is a deprecated script; TWiki.WebChanges has a SEARCH. Edit that topic in your installation to verify.

-- PeterThoeny - 04 Mar 2009

WebChanges Topic is

%INCLUDE{"%SYSTEMWEB%.%TOPIC%"}%

-- LarsNeideck - 04 Mar 2009

That's what it is supposed to look like in every web except the TWiki web (i.e., %SYSTEMWEB%).

If it looks like that in your TWiki web too, then something's wrong. Maybe you still have the correct version in the RCS history?

BTW, the .changes file is different: it's a list of the files changed since the last run of WebNotify (the tool for emailing updates to interested parties).

-- SeanCMorgan - 04 Mar 2009

The .changes is written every time the topics modified and version is updated, the changes within 60 mins (depends on configuration of the TWiki instance too) of last version changes or topics changed with forcefully version change are captured in .changes file.

mailnotify script usages .changes for sending mail but does not modify it. it just reads the file to check compare the time of last run of the mailnotify with time change of the topics.

-- SopanShewale - 05 Mar 2009

Thank you for the answers so far. Peter, my W ebChanges in Twiki web is

---+ %MAKETEXT{"[_1] Recent Changes in [_2] Web" args="%<nop>URLPARAM{"limit" default="50"}%, <nop>%INCLUDINGWEB%"}% <span style="font-size: 50%">%MAKETEXT{"retrieved at [_1]" args="%DISPLAYTIME{"$hour:$min ($tz)"}%"}%</span>

%SEARCH{".*" web="%INCLUDINGWEB%" type="regex" nosearch="on" noheader="on" order="modified" limit="%<nop>URLPARAM{"limit" default="50"}%" reverse="on"}%

<strong><em>%MAKETEXT{"See also:"}%</em></strong>
%ICON{rss-small}%
%MAKETEXT{"<a href='[_1]'>RSS feed</a>, recent changes with <a href='[_2]'>50</a>, <a href='[_3]' rel='nofollow'>100</a>, <a href='[_4]' rel='nofollow'>200</a>, <a href='[_5]' rel='nofollow'>500</a>, <a href='[_6]' rel='nofollow'>1000</a> topics, <a href='[_7]' rel='nofollow'>all changes</a>" args="%SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%INCLUDINGWEB%/WebRss, %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%INCLUDINGWEB%/%INCLUDINGTOPIC%, %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%INCLUDINGWEB%/%INCLUDINGTOPIC%?limit=100, %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%INCLUDINGWEB%/%INCLUDINGTOPIC%?limit=200, %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%INCLUDINGWEB%/%INCLUDINGTOPIC%?limit=500, %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%INCLUDINGWEB%/%INCLUDINGTOPIC%?limit=1000, %SCRIPTURLPATH{"view"}%/%INCLUDINGWEB%/%INCLUDINGTOPIC%?limit=All"}%

Could it be problems with the INCLUDINGWEB variable?

-- LarsNeideck - 06 Mar 2009

humbl grumbl

• INCLUDINGWEB shows the right web
• Twiki WebChanges work (sry, i didnt check this)
• Main WebChanges do NOT work

-- LarsNeideck - 06 Mar 2009

if I replace %SEARCH{".*" with %SEARCH{"^.*" the Main.WebChanges seems to work fine, but: what's this???

-- LarsNeideck - 06 Mar 2009

Strange, a RegularExpression search for "^.*" is more strict than ".*", it expects any char at the beginning of a string instead of anywhere. So both should work. Seems an oddity with grep on Windows, or how the shell interprets parameters.

-- PeterThoeny - 06 Mar 2009

The problem with ".*" recently showed up in SID-00098 as well.

Perhaps this is why search format patterns need to use ".*?" as well? I've never understood why ".*" wouldn't work there.

-- SeanCMorgan - 07 Mar 2009

I filed TWikibug:Item6208 to track this.

-- PeterThoeny - 09 Mar 2009

This is now checked in: TWikirev:17882 and TWikirev:17883

-- PeterThoeny - 09 Mar 2009

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