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Bug 1015268 - configtest does not fail if RewriteLog directive points to non-existent directory
Summary: configtest does not fail if RewriteLog directive points to non-existent direc...
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Classification: Red Hat
Component: httpd
Version: 6.4
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
low
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: Luboš Uhliarik
QA Contact: BaseOS QE - Apps
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2013-10-03 18:52 UTC by stein
Modified: 2021-01-14 09:34 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2014-10-27 16:09:12 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description stein 2013-10-03 18:52:07 UTC 
Description of problem:
'service httpd configtest' returns successfully with 'Syntax OK' if the mod_rewrite RewriteLog directive is used and points to a directory that does not exist.  However, Apache fails to start (service httpd start/restart) with this error in the configuration and logs "[error] (2)No such file or directory: mod_rewrite: could not open RewriteLog file /invalid/directory/rewrite.log"

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
2.2.15.29.el6_4

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Add a RewriteLog directive referencing an invalid directory, to an Apache configuration file:

 RewriteLog "/invalid/directory/rewrite.log"

2. Run 'service httpd configtest'.  It will not detect an error and returns 'Syntax OK'
 
3. Restart Apache, 'service httpd restart'

4. Apache fails to start and logs a "No such file or directory" error in the error_log


Actual results:
'service httpd configtest' returns 'Syntax OK'


Expected results:
'service httpd configtest' should return an error


Additional info:
Comment 1 Joe Orton 2013-10-03 20:15:59 UTC 
Thanks for contacting us.

"configtest" aims to check whether the configuration file is syntactically valid, and does not guarantee the server will start up.

I am generally reluctant to try adding such validation features because it is impossible in many cases to guard against false positives.  Is there a particular problem you are trying to solve here?
Comment 2 stein 2013-10-03 21:13:39 UTC 
I am using puppet to automate the management of some Apache config files.  When a config file changes, puppet is set up to restart Apache, but I also run a configtest first to make sure Apache will restart OK.

/sbin/service httpd configtest && /sbin/service httpd graceful

I expect configtest to catch any errors that would cause Apache to fail to start.

Another way of looking at this problem is whether mod_rewrite should cause Apache to fail if it encounters an invalid path in a RewriteLog directive.  Could mod_rewrite log the error, but allow Apache to continue to load?
Comment 5 Joe Orton 2014-10-27 16:09:12 UTC 
Looking again: there's actually not a good place to hook in such a feature in 2.2 unfortunately. 

In 2.4 there is no RewriteLog directive any more, since we have fine-grained error log control.  But we do have a new hook which allows more sophisticated validation of directives, and ErrorLog does have a specific check for directory existence.

So probably an unsatisfactory answer, sorry, but "upgrade to RHEL 7" is probably the best answer we have here.
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