Question

Trying to upgrade from and old TWikiRelease01Dec2001 to the latest one, I get a lot of problems trying to make RCS work correctly. Note that I have RCSLite running correctly, but I'd prefer to stick with RCSWrap.

I'm using modperl following WindowsModPerlInstallCookbook by the book.

Whenever I save an existing topic, it's txt,v gets corrupted in some places that have not even been touched during edition. It can be anywhere in the topic. I couldn't find a pattern for this corruption. It just happens with every topic Save.

• sample 1
  • old line :

%TOC{title="Page contents"}%

• • changed line :

%TOC{title="Pag}%

• sample 2
  • old line :

-- Main.TWikiGuest - 15 Sep 2005

• • changed line :

-- Main.TWikiGues@

Note that txt files are NOT corrupted and therefore, progressively go out of synch with their txt,v along with each Save operations.

Any clue as to what is happening ? I'm running out of imagination now.

Thanks a lot to whoever will get me out of this situation.

Environment

-- JeromeBouvattier - 15 Sep 2005

Answer

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It seems I bumped into the following issue :

• RCS bug: ci deleting portions of files
• Help! RCS checkin corrupting my files!

Note that setting RCS_LF_ONLY=1 won't help.

I get the same problem from the command line. So it's really the RCS GNU port that is involved. Since I used the same RCS port in the old Twiki setup, I think it's the fact newer Twiki releases (at least the one I'm dealing with) force LF EOLs in both txt and txt,v files that triggers the RCS bug.

Now I really don't know what to do. I could go with the Cygwin port, but if I remember correctly back then, I've never been able to make it work with modperl. That's why I went with the GNU port.

Does anyone have a clue of what I could do ?

-- JeromeBouvattier - 16 Sep 2005

You could always use RcsLite....

-- CrawfordCurrie - 21 Sep 2005

Sure, but I would prefer not to. Because of RCSLiteEmptiesTheLockInRcsFiles and RCSLiteRdiffLayoutIsDifficultToRead. Also RcsWrap , unlik RcsLite, ignores modifed line endings in its rdiff output. Something I'm looking for (see StrangeEOLsForMyOldTwiki).

Anyway, I'm now able to run Twiki on Apache + mod_perl + active perl + cygwin utils (incl. RCS). It's less convenient to use Cygwin, but it works. Another advantage with this setup, is that I can easily switch between the following confs :

• Cygwin Perl & utils, no mod_perl
• Cygwin utils, Active Perl, no mod_perl
• Cygwin utils, Active Perl, mod_perl

What I find odd, is that I seem to be first one following WindowsModPerlInstallCookbook that encounters that bug in the RCS GNU port. I can really reproduce the bug on any topic of a fresh Twiki install as well as new topics.

BTW, I edited my first comment to add another link to the said bug.

Note : Maybe this topic should be renamed GNURcsCorruptsRevisionFiles or something like that.

-- JeromeBouvattier - 21 Sep 2005

Not really odd, Jerome. Most people who install on Windows do so to get a local TWiki (e.g. as a personal notepad) and don't use mod_perl. I have never used mod_perl on Windows myself, ever since I discovered that speedycgi worked and was trivial to set up.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 24 Sep 2005

ic. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with UNIX, so I'm left with Windows to run our Intranet Twiki. So far, we're happy that way, but mod_perl is really needed on Windows. I should maybe look for other alternatives though.

Anyway, that won't solve the RCS issue. People should really be aware that the RCS GNU port must be avoided. With or without mod_perl. It may have worked in the past, as it did for us, with earlier Twiki releases that left CRLFs as EOLs on Windows, but now that LFs are forced, it's a almost a certainty the RCS GNU bug will be triggered sooner or later.

-- JeromeBouvattier - 24 Sep 2005