Issue status update for http://drupal.org/node/18641 Project: Drupal Version: cvs Component: base system Category: tasks Priority: normal Assigned to: Morbus Iff Reported by: Morbus Iff Updated by: Morbus Iff Status: patch Any word on this one? If there's no code fix in time for next week, then the docs should be amended with this. Morbus Iff Previous comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 9, 2005 - 14:54 : Morbus Iff The following patches clear up a number of minor inconsistencies during a Drupal installation. Largely, this is related to internal documentation and "where things go", but should help organize, clearup, and ease the installation. These aren't features, so they're eligible for a 4.6 commit. The INSTALL.txt no longer contains the SERVER CONFIGURATION block. These settings are now hardcoded into sites/default/settings.php, and are merely scary technical junk here. The INSTALL.txt has been updated with the latest system requirements. A whole sentence was struck regarding differing versions of PHP for the OSs. The INSTALL.txt contains URLs to MySQL and PostgreSQL. If we're including the URL for PHP in the same sentence, then there's no reason why we wouldn't include them for the database engines. What are the minimal requirements for the RDBMS? Those should be included here too. The INSTALL.txt's OPTIONAL COMPONENTS has renamed to OPTIONAL REQUIREMENTS. The only difference between the meaning is the amount of user confusion. The INSTALL.txt has a new CONTENTS OF THIS FILE, in hopes that people will more immediately notice that there are upgrade instructions at the bottom. The INSTALL.txt had some potentially confusing lines adjusted, including further clarifications, standarding to "userid" (instead of using both userid and username interchangebly) and so on. I've moved most of .htaccess php_value's to the ini_set system for /sites/. There are a few reasons for this, chiefly that it is centralizing all the PHP setting modifications to one place. But, this also clears up a few initial configuration issues: first, the user doesn't have to worry about whether they have Apache 1 or 2, and whether they need to change an IfModule line. Also, the running assumption is that these php_value's are /going to work by default anyways/, when the INSTALL.txt suggests otherwise (under OPTIONAL REQUIREMENTS, it talks about "the ability to use local .htaccess files", which suggests that "local .htaccess files" INCLUDING "mod_rewrite" are entirely optional.) Some variables, however, had to remain in .htaccess because they can't be overridden at runtime, but the amount was so small that duplicating them for both Apache 1 and Apache 2 possibilities is no longer a prohibitive concern. There are two variables in .htaccess that I'm concerned about: track_vars, and allow_call_time_pass_reference. track_vars appears to be no longer necessary (as of 4.0.3, track_vars is /always/ on [1], and my setting it here had no impact on the results of a phpinfo), and allow_call_time_pass_reference seems, at least here, to ONLY WORK if the .htaccess value is set to "1", and not "On" - meaning that Drupal installations are currently working correctly with its default value (off). According to the PHP docs, this feature is now deprecated. However, since both of these variables require further investigation, track_vars has been moved to settings.php, and allow_call_time_pass_reference has been "fixed" to a 1 (not 'On'). Along with the changes above for sites/default/settings.php, I've also removed the spacing indent in the documentation, as well as many a few grammatical/punctuation changes here and there. I don't think the leading spacing is "right" according to the style guidelines, but maybe there's a special need for it. Correct me if I'm wrong. These patches were made during the exploration and customization of Drupal by NHPR.org. In loving support of open source software, NHPR.org will continue to contribute patches they feel the community will benefit from. [1] http://us3.php.net/session ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 9, 2005 - 14:54 : Morbus Iff Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/patch01_.htaccess (3.36 KB) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 9, 2005 - 14:55 : Morbus Iff Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/patch01_INSTALL.txt.patch (10.26 KB) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 9, 2005 - 14:55 : Morbus Iff Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/patch01_settings.php.patch (6.21 KB) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 9, 2005 - 15:12 : Morbus Iff Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/patch01_INSTALL.txt_0.patch (10.27 KB) Slight revision of the previous INSTALL.txt patch. One of the added Contents was listed wrong. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 9, 2005 - 16:02 : Chris Johnson Well done. Cleaning up this kind of stuff is not as exciting as cutting code, but it really helps the over-all quality. My hat is off to you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 12, 2005 - 05:51 : Dries Good stuff! Committed to HEAD. Thanks Morbus. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 12, 2005 - 10:29 : Morbus Iff Dries - did you mean to remove the ".conf" extension from the .htaccess Deny? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 12, 2005 - 10:30 : Morbus Iff Oh wait. Nevermind. We don't have any of those extensions anymore. My bad. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 13, 2005 - 11:58 : TDobes As for allow_call_time_pass_reference, I would tend to agree that we don't need it at all. See this drupal-devel topic from a while ago [2]. Since then, I've been running with it in the "OFF" state and have experienced no problems with core or a variety of contrib modules and themes. See also: the php.net description of why it's deprecated [3]. One comment about the INSTALL.txt changes: I think you meant PHP 4.3*.*3 as the minimum version... not 4.33. :-) With 4.3.3 as the minimum requirement, I'd also say it's safe to get rid of track_vars... I see no difference with it removed. Also: Why do we have short_open_tag in there? I'm pretty sure we use the long form of the php open tag throughout Drupal and almost all contrib modules. (those that do not should be fixed, IMO) [2] http://lists.drupal.org/archives/drupal-devel/2004-07/msg00474.html [3] http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.allow-call-time-pass-reference ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 14, 2005 - 15:07 : Anonymous Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/03_cleandocs2.patch (3.33 KB) Per TDobes comments: * INSTALL.txt corrected to use 4.3.3, not 4.33. * .htaccess: removed allow_call_time_pass_reference. two confirmations that a) the setting was wrong in the first place, b) there were no adverse affects for the incorrect setting, c) the PHP docs say it is deprecated. * .htaccess: removed short_open_tag. Running grep -r "<? " * across the entire directory tree of both core and contributions only brought up contributions and no core. I agree that the fuller form is better. The following contributions will need to be updated: modules/edit_template/edit_template.module sandbox/garym/themes/marvin_2k/templates/page.tpl.php sandbox/killes/compare.php sandbox/paolino/import/click.php themes/spreadfirefox/block.tpl.php For error's sake, I also did a manual verification for "<?" (no space) across core and came up against nothing in addition to the above contribs. And my own further analities: * .htaccess: cleaned up some whitespace valleys (i hate 'em, hate 'em!) and fixed a few stray colons. * settings.php: minor whitespace error. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 14, 2005 - 15:08 : Morbus Iff Comment #10 is mine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 14, 2005 - 15:24 : TDobes Looks good to me. +1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 14, 2005 - 15:42 : Goba Do not depend on PHP.ini defaults please. It would be essential to get back the session.auto_start 0 setting into .htaccess, or otherwise those, who have this turned on in their PHP will get ugly errors, since the database session handler will not be able to initialize and work at all... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 14, 2005 - 15:45 : Morbus Iff Per the already-committed patch, session.auto_start 0 has been moved to sites/default/settings.php. Per the PHP documentation, session.auto_start is a runtime variable: http://us4.php.net/session. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 14, 2005 - 15:54 : Goba Morbus, read this in the manual: session.auto_start specifies whether the session module starts a session automatically on request startup Request startup, you see? It might be possible to modify the setting later, but if session auto start is enabled on the server, it will start the session with the handler set in php.ini (the "files" handler by default) and you will not be able to use a different handle later on. Have you tried it? We just provided support [4] to a clueless user at drupal.hu, who had this auto start turned on and then the ini_set() was unable to change the save handler. Although the linked comment is hungarian, all the PHP codes and PHP errors are English, and are easy to understand. [4] http://drupal.hu/node/304#comment-793 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 14, 2005 - 16:00 : Goba BTW track_vars would also be pointless to set from PHP, since it is also affecting request startup processing, but quoting from the manual: Note that as of PHP 4.0.3, track_vars is always turned on. – and given Drupal's PHP requirements, it is not needed anymore. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 14, 2005 - 16:01 : Morbus Iff Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/03_cleandocs2_0.patch (3.69 KB) Confirmed. Updated version of patch #10 attached. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 14, 2005 - 16:04 : Morbus Iff Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/03_cleandocs2_1.patch (3.9 KB) This patch removes track_vars entirely. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 15, 2005 - 13:40 : Morbus Iff Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/03_cleandocs2_2.patch (5.33 KB) Updating this to critical, as the previous patch broke the build (see Goba's comments). Per TDobes' comments: INSTALL.txt corrected to use 4.3.3, not 4.33. .htaccess: removed allow_call_time_pass_reference. two confirmations that a) the setting was wrong in the first place, b) there were no adverse affects for the incorrect setting, c) the PHP docs say it is deprecated. .htaccess: removed short_open_tag. Running grep -r "<? " * across the entire directory tree of both core and contributions only brought up contributions and no core. I agree that the fuller form is better. The following contributions will need to be updated: modules/edit_template/edit_template.module, sandbox/garym/themes/marvin_2k/templates/page.tpl.php, sandbox/killes/compare.php, sandbox/paolino/import/click.php, themes/spreadfirefox/block.tpl.php. For error's sake, I also did a manual verification for "<?" (no space) across core and came up against nothing in addition to the above contribs. Per Goba's comments: .htaccess: Moved session.auto_start back. sites/default/settings.php: Removed track_vars. Per mailing list comments [5]: INSTALL.txt: Added text about the files/ directory, creating it, and permissions. INSTALL.txt: Added an example of why Drupal requires cron (the search.module) in an attempt to justify why a crontab is a good, nay, required step. And my own further analities: .htaccess: cleaned up some whitespace valleys (i hate 'em, hate 'em!) and fixed a few stray colons. settings.php: minor whitespace error. [5] http://lists.drupal.org/archives/drupal-devel/2005-03/msg00630.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 15, 2005 - 16:08 : Dries Committed to HEAD. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 17, 2005 - 09:17 : Morbus Iff Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/05_cleandocs3.patch (2.26 KB) Adding a block per this thread [6] regarding subdirectory vhosting. [6] http://lists.drupal.org/archives/drupal-devel/2005-03/msg00691.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 20, 2005 - 14:00 : Dries The problem mentioned in that report looks like a bug report to me. The sim-link stuff shouldn't be necessary, or am I wrong? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 20, 2005 - 14:40 : killes@www.drop.org Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/05_cleandocs3_0.patch (2.25 KB) Updated the patch to use hard links instead. suggestion from: http://drupal.org/node/278#comment-30623 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 22, 2005 - 14:19 : Morbus Iff Dries - the symlink stuff is necessary when you consider a site without clean URLs enabled. In a normal old site without rewrite, http://www.example.com/subdir isn't going to be controlled by Drupal at all - Apache is going to happily look for and then serve something from that directory. The symlink is there to say "Apache, this location exists, but we want to send you back to the Drupal installation so that it can handle the request based on the URL". ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 22, 2005 - 14:20 : Morbus Iff Oh, and killes revision is +1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 23, 2005 - 05:28 : killes@www.drop.org The patch should really be applied the problem is going to be popular: http://drupal.org/node/19305 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ March 23, 2005 - 16:15 : Dries Jim Riggs is looking into this as well. Let's wait a bit longer for his feedback.