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Posted to dev@subversion.apache.org by Stuart Levy <sl...@ncsa.uiuc.edu> on 2007/05/02 17:58:19 UTC
subversion configure defaults -- please disable --with-apache and --with-apxs by default!
Hello subversion developers,
I recently installed subversion-1.4.3 in the routine way suggested
in its installation documentation -- build the dependent libraries,
configure with them, make, make install.
I expected that it would only change things beneath the prefix directory.
However, even though I didn't care about or specify any
apache-specific options, they were set by default. So
"make install" installed a bunch of things under $prefix as expected,
but *also* invoked apxs to add two svn-related Apache modules
to the running system's web server configuration, which I didn't
expect.
This showed up the next time the server was restarted, some
while later, when ... the server mysteriously wouldn't run because
the newly added modules were incompatible with it. This was
harder to diagnose than it might have been, since the
incompatibility simply made the server crash, rather than
giving a reportable error.
I'm not asking about the incompatibility -- the svn apache modules
aren't needed in our environment.
But, please, please, I'd like to suggest that neither "--with-apache"
nor "--with-apxs" be enabled by default. This should ensure that ...
- the default "install" only changes things under $prefix,
as is true for most packages -- following the principle
of least surprise
- unprivileged users can install local copies of subversion
without having to understand dependencies outside of $prefix.
- if a (privileged) user doesn't explicitly ask for the
apache configuration to be altered,
it will remain unchanged (and un-potentially-broken)
Thanks
Stuart Levy
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Re: subversion configure defaults -- please disable --with-apache and --with-apxs by default!
Posted by Stuart Levy <sl...@ncsa.uiuc.edu>.
On Sat, May 05, 2007 at 12:00:52PM -0400, Mark Phippard wrote:
> On 5/2/07, Stuart Levy <sl...@ncsa.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> >Hello subversion developers,
> >
> >I recently installed subversion-1.4.3 in the routine way suggested
> >in its installation documentation -- build the dependent libraries,
> >configure with them, make, make install.
> >
> >I expected that it would only change things beneath the prefix directory.
> >
> >However, even though I didn't care about or specify any
> >apache-specific options, they were set by default. So
> >"make install" installed a bunch of things under $prefix as expected,
> >but *also* invoked apxs to add two svn-related Apache modules
> >to the running system's web server configuration, which I didn't
> >expect.
[...]
>
> What was the configure command you ran? Just configure with no
> options? I tend to run it with just --with-ssl --enable-javahl
> --prefix=/usr/local/svn-trunk and I have never had it do this. Maybe
> it has something to do with what it can find though.
>
> --
> Thanks
>
> Mark Phippard
> http://markphip.blogspot.com/
Righto, I had just said this:
./configure --with-apr=/usr/local/apr/bin/apr-1-config --with-apr-util=/usr/local/apr/bin/apu-1-config
Since Apache (2.0.52-28.ent.centos4) was installed on the system,
it looks as though the SVN_FIND_APACHE macro successfully
found "apxs" and used it. Digging a bit, it appears that a way to do
what I'm suggesting would be simply to *omit* the following code:
in "build/ac-macros/svn-apache.m4" lines 77-88,
it searches for "apxs" and "apxs2" if no --with-apache nor --with-apxs
configure option was given explicitly:
if test -z "$BINNAME" && test -z "$APXS"; then
for i in /usr/sbin /usr/local/apache/bin /usr/local/apache2/bin /usr/bin ; do
if test -f "$i/apxs2"; then
APXS="$i/apxs2"
break
fi
if test -f "$i/apxs"; then
APXS="$i/apxs"
break
fi
done
fi
(Of course, if you configure subversion on a system without apache
installed, it won't find apxs, and will silently just not use it.
Probably this is the case for most people installing this software.)
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Re: subversion configure defaults -- please disable --with-apache and --with-apxs by default!
Posted by Mark Phippard <ma...@gmail.com>.
On 5/2/07, Stuart Levy <sl...@ncsa.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> Hello subversion developers,
>
> I recently installed subversion-1.4.3 in the routine way suggested
> in its installation documentation -- build the dependent libraries,
> configure with them, make, make install.
>
> I expected that it would only change things beneath the prefix directory.
>
> However, even though I didn't care about or specify any
> apache-specific options, they were set by default. So
> "make install" installed a bunch of things under $prefix as expected,
> but *also* invoked apxs to add two svn-related Apache modules
> to the running system's web server configuration, which I didn't
> expect.
>
> This showed up the next time the server was restarted, some
> while later, when ... the server mysteriously wouldn't run because
> the newly added modules were incompatible with it. This was
> harder to diagnose than it might have been, since the
> incompatibility simply made the server crash, rather than
> giving a reportable error.
>
> I'm not asking about the incompatibility -- the svn apache modules
> aren't needed in our environment.
>
> But, please, please, I'd like to suggest that neither "--with-apache"
> nor "--with-apxs" be enabled by default. This should ensure that ...
>
> - the default "install" only changes things under $prefix,
> as is true for most packages -- following the principle
> of least surprise
>
> - unprivileged users can install local copies of subversion
> without having to understand dependencies outside of $prefix.
>
> - if a (privileged) user doesn't explicitly ask for the
> apache configuration to be altered,
> it will remain unchanged (and un-potentially-broken)
What was the configure command you ran? Just configure with no
options? I tend to run it with just --with-ssl --enable-javahl
--prefix=/usr/local/svn-trunk and I have never had it do this. Maybe
it has something to do with what it can find though.
--
Thanks
Mark Phippard
http://markphip.blogspot.com/
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