Fossil: View Ticket

2009-08-01
14:35		• Fixed ticket [e3c34af10d]: can't run fossil clone command when not at tty plus 2 other changes artifact: 2454c2fa81 user: drh
14:34		Improvement to the error message issued when the HOME environment variable is missing. Ticket [e3c34af10dd28] check-in: e00a5de0f1 user: drh tags: trunk
2009-06-15
03:20		• Ticket [e3c34af10d] can't run fossil clone command when not at tty status still Open with 1 other change artifact: 37c772e8bd user: bharder
03:08		• Ticket [e3c34af10d]: 3 changes artifact: e3aed99cd3 user: anonymous
2009-06-14
15:08		• Ticket [e3c34af10d]: 2 changes artifact: 355010c36a user: bharder
09:04		• New ticket [e3c34af10d]. artifact: 8c6613edf9 user: anonymous

Ticket Hash:	e3c34af10dd28780f0718a6b1e826da4f52a3755
Title:	can't run fossil clone command when not at tty
Status:	Fixed	Type:	Documentation
Severity:	Minor	Priority:
Subsystem:		Resolution:	Fixed
Last Modified:	2009-08-01 14:35:38 16.68 years ago	Created:	2009-06-14 09:04:59 16.81 years ago
Version Found In:	fossil-linux-x86-767ae79c3d

Description:

I try to run a clone command to create a local repository in a startup script which runs at boot. The command fails, and when standard error is redirected to a file, the cryptic message "fossil: cannot local home directory" is found. The same command succeeds when run from the command line while logged in at a terminal.

The command looks like: fossil clone http://<user>:<pass>@localhost:7071 /home/<user>/fossil/repository.fsl

The script is run as root, the directory /home/<user>/fossil exists, a local tunnel is created to a remote repository via ssh.

For debugging purposes, I edited the startup script so that the clone command is in a while loop as long as repository.fsl doesn't exist. While the startup script was stuck in the loop, I logged in and executed the clone command on the command line as root, and it worked fine. This suggests there is no problem with the tunnel or environment.

bharder added on 2009-06-14 15:08:30:
Try manually setting the HOME environment variable to an appropriate value for the user your want to be.

anonymous added on 2009-06-15 03:08:21:
Setting the HOME variable worked, thanks bharder.

I'm reclassing this as a doc bug, because at minimum there should be some mention that the clone command requires that the HOME var be set. But I would suggest eliminating the requirement in the code. I don't see any reason why it would be a necessity.

Also, I'll guess that the cryptic error message quoted above was intended to read: "cannot locate home directory."

bharder added on 2009-06-15 03:20:49:
re: cryptic message: yes. Fixed in checkin [16eae22891].

drh added on 2009-08-01 14:35:38:
Fossil really does need to locate the user's home directory. But the error message has been improved. We'll consider this issue closed.

Check-in [e00a5de0f143bb7dad565e11f646f87bb1ae66b9]