Item4094: configure does not initialize hidden settings as it should

After the expert settings are now hidden in configure, doing the initial save without making them visible means some of them are not correctly initialized and included in LocalSite.cfg.

The symptom I see is

Error: TWiki.pm could not be loaded. The error was:

Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /var/www/twiki/lib/TWiki.pm line 356.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /var/www/twiki/lib/TWiki.pm line 489.
Compilation failed in require at (eval 85) line 3.

Error: Check path to twiki/lib and check that LocalSite.cfg is present and readable 

Above caused by at least 3 settings not being set to anything when not seeing expert settings.

When you just view the expert settings without changing anything and then save again these 3 are set

{Site}{CharSet}
$TWiki::cfg{Site}{CharSet} = 'iso-8859-15';
{Site}{Lang}
$TWiki::cfg{Site}{Lang} = 'en';
{Site}{FullLang}
$TWiki::cfg{Site}{FullLang} = 'en-us';

The configure script needs to process ALL settings and set them to proper values even when the user has not viewed them.

This is a release blocker.

-- TWiki:Main/KennethLavrsen - 21 May 2007

configure contains a list of "critical" settings that TWiki just won't work without. Only critical settings are set when going through the initial paths screen. TWiki should be tolerant to any other setting being missing - indeed, this is fundamental to the bootstrapping of a new install. A recent patch added a new critical setting; but only one. When I make that setting uncritical again, then initial config works as I would expect.

CC

these three settings have been "problematic" since configure. i think kenneth is seeing a different manifestation to the problem i encountered when working on an installer. iirc, the problem was that these variables aren't defaulted at runtime in the core as all the others are (or at least, used to be, circa twiki 4.0 era)

i see only one checkin (13850) and it only addresses one of these variables.

WN

Right; I configured a new TWiki, ran it up and it worked without needing values for the other two. I'll check again.

Later; I double-checked, and those two don't need values.

CC

Item4097 seems to want $TWiki::cfg{Site}{CharSet} ?

but, it's not that i really want configure to write out these variables; i'd much prefer to have them defaulted at runtime.

WN

TWiki should work without a value for this configuration item; see Item4097

CC

The original problem is still not resolved.

Test case

• Start from scratch by deleting the LocalSite.cfg
• Go through the basic settings and save defining a password
• Go back to configure and setup the required settings to get Twiki running a plain Apache login/htpasswd configuration. Do not click the "Yes I have read all the documentation" button.
• Save.
• Go back to configure
• Now click the "Yes I have read all the documentation"
• Do not touch anything else.
• Save
• You will now see that I was right when I said that the hidden settings are not stored with their default. You get the message 3 configuration items were changed {Site}{FullLang} {Site}{Lang} {Site}{CharSet} when you save clearly indicating that the saved settings are depending on if you view all settings.

Under no circumstances should the hiding of settings influence what gets saved. This leads to unwanted bugs.

Reopening and setting urgent

-- KennethLavrsen - 03 Jun 2007

it's unlikely related to the fact that they are hidden settings as this issue has been present before EXPERT settings even existed (if i am reading hidden corrected as those expert settings)

-- TWiki:Main.WillNorris - 03 Jun 2007

No do not mix up the problems. This bug report is - and was - that configure calculates some defaults for these 3 settings but only when you ask to see them. You can save 10 times in configure with the EXPERT settings hidden. And the 3 do not get defined and saved. The minutes you click "Yes I have read all the documentation" the configure page is reloaded with all settings visible and when you save next time the 3 settings suddenly get a value and are stored in LocalSite.cfg. THAT is the bug that needs to get fixed. If these 3 are the only ones we can remove the EXPERT setting from them.

-- KennethLavrsen - 03 Jun 2007

Interesting; i have no idea how it's managing to do that

I will have to investigate. But is this really Urgent?

CC

-- TWiki:Main.CrawfordCurrie - 04 Jun 2007

Currently neither you nor I knows why this is happening and potentially this could cause serious errors.

But we can change these 3 settings to non EXPERT and lower priority to Normal

-- KennethLavrsen - 04 Jun 2007

"potentially could cause serious errors" - no. These values are not required to run TWiki. They, and all other values, are provided with sensible defaults.

I changed the code so that they always receive values on the first run - though I repeat, it is not essential to do this.

CC