Question

I've recently loaded the TWiki Beta in order to bypass some problems I was having trying to use either RCS or RcsLite. With the Beta version, RCS now sort of works ( which it didn't at all with the Production Release ).

I can now edit and save changes and these changes "stick". Meaning, they're still there if I re-edit the same page ( this wasn't the happening with the Feb 2003 release )..

However, my revision number doesn't change and if I do an rlog on a changed file, I get something like:

RCS file: TestTopic8.txt,v
Working file: TestTopic8.txt
head: 1.1
branch:
locks: strict
access list:
symbolic names:
keyword substitution: kv
total revisions: 1;     selected revisions: 1
description:
----------------------------
revision 1.1
date: 2004/04/25 04:50:42;  author: guest;  state: Exp;
none

Note that there is no "owner" of the "locks:" parameter. I tried deleting all my *.txt,v files ( starting with a "clean slate" ), but the same thing continues to happen.

My question is this:

Because I am running on a hosted site, I must run my cgi files as my site username, NOT nobody and NOT twiki. All my TWiki files do have the owner and group of my site username.

Is there someplace in TWiki.cfg or TWiki.pm or ?? where I need to set a(some) parameter(s) to accomodate not running as "nobody". The installation documentation seems to imply this, but it doesn't say what to do it you're NOT running as "nobody".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

Chris Vogel

I have attached my testenv results.

Environment

-- ChrisVogel - 26 Apr 2004

Answer

Did you have a look on the last paragraph (lightgray background) of the File Permissions section in the TWikiDocumentation topic? It shows how to properly change ownership of RCS files if nobody is not your Apache user.

-- FranzJosefSilli - 26 Apr 2004

Question

Hi.

Well, I ran the script written in some of the Q&A's:

cd twiki/data
perl -pi~ -e 's/nobody:/apache:/' */*,v

If you think I should, I'll try running the similar script listed in the Docs( except I thought that www-data was for Debian and I'm running apache under RedHat ):

cd twiki/data
perl -pi~ -e 'NR <= 10 && s/nobody:/www-data:/ ' */*,v

My question still stands.

The testenv results state:

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.

Do I really want to change the locks to "nobody" or should they be changed to MyUserName? Testenv says change them to MyUserName. So far I haven't been able to change them at all. It says in the install docs that deleting all my *,v files is another way to do this. But that hasn't worked.

In the meantime, I'll try running the similiar script. If it yields good results, I'll let you know. ( I've just tried it and it didn't change anything - still NO owner of the "locks:" parameter ).

Note: This may be a clue. I've got a: TestTopic8.lock, a TestTopic8.txt, a TestTopic8.txt,v, and a TestTopic8.txt,v~

I haven't edited TestTopic8 since last night.

Regards,

Chris Vogel

Additional Note

After further poking around, it appears that I do want my files to have the owner and group names of MyUserName. I read this somewhere in the TWiki docs.

My files DO seem to update the revision number. In order to do this, I at least need to close my browser and log in as someone else. I may be able to cause the revision to roll by just logging back in as myself.

I am still puzzled by not having any owner for my "locks:", when I run an rlog on a *.txt,v file. I have been told that if I was the last one to modify the file, my name should be listed after "locks:".

Regards,

Chris Vogel

Revisited

Umm, is this actually documented anywhere these days (2006 TWiki 4.0.2)?

I'm up to step three of TWikiInstallationGuide at work, and can't go any further without (at least recording that I started from) the distribution's recommended file ownerships and permissions.

The only doc I could find in the last hour says it's beyond the scope of this doc but seems to be missing any link to THE doc. I know we used to have this somewhere but it isn't around now, and some links like the old one above don't cut it any more.

Please tell me I've just missed seeing something

-- SueBlake - 12 May 2006

Look at the comments at the end of the INSTALL.html doc that's included in the root of 4.0.2 distribution. There's a hint about how to set the permissions for files in the pub directory that you can also use for files in the data directory. We need to get this into into TWikiInstallationGuide. Re-reading step 3 again, I'm struck at just how un-helpful those instructions are. And from my limited experience, they just don't make sense. But someone more knowledgeable than me needs to work on them...

-- LynnwoodBrown - 12 May 2006

The soon-to-be-released 4.0.3 has some improvements in this area (will now automatically try to break locks), if this problem still exists in 4.0.3 it should be reported to our bug tracker (Bugs:WebHome).

-- SteffenPoulsen - 16 Jun 2006