Re: [opensuse] Update Hylafax 4.4 to 6.03 with src.rpm on OpenSuSE 10.3
On Wednesday 19 August 2009 05:08:26 pm you wrote:
cd /srv/www/avantfax/
That's an invalid directory for SuSE packages. A build of avantfax in the obs should fail exactly because of this.
Oops, sorry, I install *all* web applications from source (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2) so I have control over where they go and what my document root looks like. I haven't tried the openSuSE Avantfax, but I will on the next install. Avantfax/HylaFAX combination is the greatest thing since sliced bread for faxing. Glad to know SuSE has the rpm available. Let me know if you want anyone to test the new hylafax before you release it. I'm happy to do it. Right now, be aware we are trouble-shooting an openSuSE problem with the hylafax getaddrinfo call in hylafax-6.0.3/hfaxd/InetFaxServer.c++ file at the moment. Hopefully it will be resolved soon. You can see the result of the latest troubleshooting by applying the following patch: diff --git a/hfaxd/InetFaxServer.c++ b/hfaxd/InetFaxServer.c++ index 420a1e9..dfa9910 100644 --- a/hfaxd/InetFaxServer.c++ +++ b/hfaxd/InetFaxServer.c++ @@ -71,7 +71,8 @@ InetSuperServer::startServer(void) if (pp) hints.ai_protocol = pp->p_proto; - if (getaddrinfo(bindaddress, port, &hints, &ai) == 0) { + int gaie = getaddrinfo(bindaddress, port, &hints, &ai); + if (gaie == 0) { memcpy(&addr, ai->ai_addr, ai->ai_addrlen); freeaddrinfo(ai); /* @@ -81,8 +82,8 @@ InetSuperServer::startServer(void) if (! bindaddress) memset(Socket::addr(addr), 0, Socket::addrlen(addr)); } else { - logDebug("Couldn't get address information for port \"%s\"", - (const char*) port); + logDebug("Couldn't get address information for port \"%s\": %d", + (const char*) port, gaie); /* * Somethings broken here, let's pick some conservative defaults */ The value for gai error code being returned on openSuSE is "-2" not good, so there are problem binding to the initial port that cause reams of debug info in the logs. We should know more tomorrow. The hylafax maintainer working the issue is Aidan Van Dyk. aidan at ifax dot com. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
* David C. Rankin (drankinatty@suddenlinkmail.com) [20090821 07:38]:
I install *all* web applications from source (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2) so I have control over where they go and what my document root looks like.
So you have checked that *all* applications on your system that might have an interest in things below the document root agree on the same directory? That is the reason why the buildservice and our autobuild have checks that at least nmake sure that certain directories can't be used.
The hylafax maintainer working the issue is Aidan Van Dyk. aidan at ifax dot com.
I'll contact him directly. Thanks for notifying me! Philipp PS I'll let you know when I have packages to test. -- Anything whose specification is too complicated to explain easily probably needs to be redesigned. David Abrahams on boost -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:38:12 -0500, you wrote:
I haven't tried the openSuSE Avantfax, but I will on the next install.
I don't think we offer Avantfax yet. But why don't you build it in the builderver in your home project and then submit a request for factory?
Avantfax/HylaFAX combination is the greatest thing since sliced bread for faxing.
If you built it in the buildserver, others would also benefit of your work and wouldn't have to build it themselves. Philipp -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 03 September 2009 01:21:12 pm Philipp Thomas wrote:
On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:38:12 -0500, you wrote:
I haven't tried the openSuSE Avantfax, but I will on the next install.
I don't think we offer Avantfax yet. But why don't you build it in the builderver in your home project and then submit a request for factory?
Avantfax/HylaFAX combination is the greatest thing since sliced bread for faxing.
If you built it in the buildserver, others would also benefit of your work and wouldn't have to build it themselves.
Philipp
Ok, Phillip: bit of an update. I have given Aidan access to my openSuSE test box to chase down a current pdf submission error for hylafax-6.0.3 on openSuSE: Sep 1 15:24:34 nirvana FaxQueuer[1327]: SUBMIT JOB 93 Sep 1 15:24:36 nirvana kernel: faxq[3564] general protection rip:2ae49e04ebb0 rsp:7fff453ab9e8 error:0 Sep 1 15:24:36 nirvana FaxQueuer[1327]: JOB 93: bad exit status 0xb from sub- fork Sep 1 15:24:36 nirvana FaxQueuer[1327]: NOTIFY: bin/notify.php "doneq/q93" "failed" "" Sep 1 15:24:37 nirvana FaxQueuer[1327]: NOTIFY exit status: 0 (3569) The [faxq] issue is the biggie. I'll let you know the outcome. I'll work on packaging it. How hard can it be? It's just a web app and only requires modifications 3 files in /var/spool/hylafax/... However, the package will depend on where the spool directory of hylafax goes, "/var/spool/fax" (current-old non-stantard location) or "/var/spool/hylafax" (standard install location for just about everyone else). I hope SuSE will see fit to use /var/spool/hylafax instead of using a custom directory and being out of sync with the rest of the Linux community. LSB?? Let me know, Thanks. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
* David C. Rankin (drankinatty@suddenlinkmail.com) [20090904 14:45]:
I'll work on packaging it. How hard can it be? It's just a web app and only requires modifications 3 files in /var/spool/hylafax/...
I've taken a (a bit cursory) look at avantfax myself and I'd say it needs some *major* work: 1) There is no place you could possibly move the whole avantfax directory. Simply moving it to something like /var/www is impossible! It looks like several directories are needed, some of them below /usr/lib, others below /var/lib and /var/cache and so on. *Then* you need to adapt the php scripts to the changed paths. 2) Replacing files from hylafax with symlinks to avantfax replacements is a no-go for rpm packages. The name of the scripts to call must be made configurable *in Hylafax*. 3) Having a sudoers entry for HTTPDUSER that includes /sbin/reboot and /sbin/halt will earn you some discussion with our security folks. 4) You can't simply start all services you need from an rpm package. IMNSHO the only clean solution would be an init script that depends on all services that avantfax needs but otherwise does nothing more than report status. 5) As we don't have any means for interactive installation a rather extensive README needs to be written that explains the user what and how to configure.
I hope SuSE will see fit to use var/spool/hylafax instead of using a /custom directory and being out of sync with the rest of the Linux /community.
Hylafax currently needs a new maintainer, which can be anyone from the community. This maintainer could change the default to /var/spool/hylafax , though he would have to regard the update path. Philipp -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Philipp Thomas wrote:
* David C. Rankin (drankinatty@suddenlinkmail.com) [20090904 14:45]:
I'll work on packaging it. How hard can it be? It's just a web app and only requires modifications 3 files in /var/spool/hylafax/...
I've taken a (a bit cursory) look at avantfax myself and I'd say it needs some *major* work:
1) There is no place you could possibly move the whole avantfax directory. Simply moving it to something like /var/www is impossible! It looks like several directories are needed, some of them below /usr/lib, others below /var/lib and /var/cache and so on. *Then* you need to adapt the php scripts to the changed paths.
2) Replacing files from hylafax with symlinks to avantfax replacements is a no-go for rpm packages. The name of the scripts to call must be made configurable *in Hylafax*.
3) Having a sudoers entry for HTTPDUSER that includes /sbin/reboot and /sbin/halt will earn you some discussion with our security folks.
4) You can't simply start all services you need from an rpm package. IMNSHO the only clean solution would be an init script that depends on all services that avantfax needs but otherwise does nothing more than report status.
5) As we don't have any means for interactive installation a rather extensive README needs to be written that explains the user what and how to configure.
I hope SuSE will see fit to use var/spool/hylafax instead of using a /custom directory and being out of sync with the rest of the Linux /community.
Hylafax currently needs a new maintainer, which can be anyone from the community. This maintainer could change the default to /var/spool/hylafax , though he would have to regard the update path.
Philipp
Does this new hylafax have the -j option to sendfax and the event trigger script ( /var/spool/hylafax/etc/FaxAccounting, intended for accounting but also proivides the perfect place to insert any kind of database or application integration you want) from HylaFAX+ ? The problem with the 'official' hylafax is that the maintainers, ifax, sell db integration as a commercial enhancement, and so they are dismotivated to provide such features in hylafax for free. But hylafax+ has them. I was maintaining hylafax+ myself for a while but I found that someone else is already maintaining a nice package in OBS and it's been working fine. ifax and the regular hylafax web site tries to discredit hylafax+ as an inferior (or at least pointless) offshoot, but, until these features or something of equivalent or better functionality are in hylafax, I won't use it. Can't actually. I need to be able to associate individual fax jobs with various records in my application, and I need to be able to have the application look up the current status of any fax job. Not all jobs are submitted in such a way that the app can collect a fax reqeast number from sendfax at submit time and track the job that way, but they can attach metadata about the job to the fax, which the app can then look for later. VSI-FAX has that as a built in feature since decades ago, yet hylafax still doesn't have it. But I can emulate one of vsi-fax's features with the -j option in hylafax+'s sendfax. Which is, -j allows you to supply a free form comment with a fax request, and that comment gets saved along with the rest of the fax job details, and can be included in the faxstat output, and so, you can embed special strings in -j and then search for them in sendfax. This sorta-kinda-good-enough emulates the feature of "user tags" in vsifax where you can submit arbitrary extra info with a fax job, and it goes into it's own extra field in vsifax's back end database, and then you can use those fields to search for fax jobs later efficiently. By asking for all of the faxes submitted by company-z, or all of the faxes associated with invoice-#n, etc.. The FaxAccounting script is essentially the same as another key integration feature of vsi-fax which they call event-notification-procedure scripts. Basically shell scripts that you can put whatever you want in them, and they run any time the status of any fax changes. So you use them to update external databases, send emails print things etc.. whatever weird thing you want that there isn't already a built-in function for. Vsi-fax has a bunch of different scripts that will run under different conditions or for different phases of a fax job, and FaxAccounting is basically a single script that runs at a few of the main points in the life of a fax job, so it's simpler than vsifax, but it's still perfectly fine. And, our fax server, which receives and sends tons of faxes a day 24/7 via a full T1 fax board installed right in the box as well as a varying number of regular modems on pots lines, and receiving outgoing fax jobs from 20 or so remote application servers, has been chugging just fine without a blip running hylafax+ for years, so, stability/performance/reliability are no concern that I can see. http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home://aljex/openSUSE_11.1/x86_64/... which really comes from here: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=hylafax-plus&project=home:DocB -- bkw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
* Brian K. White (brian@aljex.com) [20090904 22:01]:
Does this new hylafax have the -j option to sendfax and the event trigger script ( /var/spool/hylafax/etc/FaxAccounting, intended for accounting but also proivides the perfect place to insert any kind of database or application integration you want) from HylaFAX+ ?
This is hylafax 6.0.3 directly from the official site, so I guess both are missing. Philipp -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Friday 04 September 2009 03:00:37 pm Brian K. White wrote:
Does this new hylafax have the -j option to sendfax and the event trigger script ( /var/spool/hylafax/etc/FaxAccounting, intended for accounting but also proivides the perfect place to insert any kind of database or application integration you want) from HylaFAX+ ?
Brian, I'll have to ask Aidan at ifax. Currently, Avantfax does a great job using mysql as the backend for all the incoming and outgoing faxes along with automatically collecting the fax numbers and names via caller ID. The avantfax database structure looks like this: mysql> show tables; +--------------------+ | Tables_in_avantfax | +--------------------+ | AddressBook | | AddressBookEmail | | AddressBookFAX | | BarcodeRoute | | DIDRoute | | DistroList | | DynConf | | FaxArchive | | FaxCategory | | Modems | | SysLog | | UserAccount | | UserPasswords | +--------------------+ The full structure (describe of each table) can be viewed at: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/linux/apps/hylafax/avantfax/avantfax.mys...
The problem with the 'official' hylafax is that the maintainers, ifax, sell db integration as a commercial enhancement, and so they are dismotivated to provide such features in hylafax for free. But hylafax+ has them. I was maintaining hylafax+ myself for a while but I found that someone else is already maintaining a nice package in OBS and it's been working fine.
That excellent. I haven't even run into this hylafax/hylafax+ issue yet, so I'll have to take a look to see what the issue is. Avantfax has suited all my needs quite well. The holy grail would be a connector between egroupware and avantfax allowing my existing egroupware addressbook list to be used natively without creating the avantfax table with a query
And, our fax server, which receives and sends tons of faxes a day 24/7 via a full T1 fax board installed right in the box as well as a varying number of regular modems on pots lines, and receiving outgoing fax jobs from 20 or so remote application servers, has been chugging just fine without a blip running hylafax+ for years, so, stability/performance/reliability are no concern that I can see.
And I thought my 10-20 faxes a day was a busy server....
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home://aljex/openSUSE_11.1/x86_64 /hylafax-5.2.9-5.1.x86_64.rpm which really comes from here: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=hylafax-plus&project=home:D ocB
Thanks for the links. I'll check it out. Regardless of what openSuSE ultimately packages, there is a huge need to bring the hylafax packages up to date. The 4.4 packages are so old that the recommendation on the hylafax list for any problems is to updated to a newer package because of all the fixes that have been put in place since 4.4 was released. From earlier conversations with Phillip we know that the prior hylafax maintainer for openSuSE has been gone for some time, so the package is in need of work. Further, wherever the decision making lies in openSuSE about moving the spool directory from /var/spool/fax to /var/spool/hylafax, that decision needs to be made so that any future packager has direction for the basic package layout. Does anybody know who it is that will need to make that decision and how long it takes to get something like that done? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Friday 04 September 2009 09:33:19 am Philipp Thomas wrote:
* David C. Rankin (drankinatty@suddenlinkmail.com) [20090904 14:45]:
I'll work on packaging it. How hard can it be? It's just a web app and only requires modifications 3 files in /var/spool/hylafax/...
I've taken a (a bit cursory) look at avantfax myself and I'd say it needs some *major* work:
1) There is no place you could possibly move the whole avantfax directory. Simply moving it to something like /var/www is impossible! It looks like several directories are needed, some of them below /usr/lib, others below /var/lib and /var/cache and so on. *Then* you need to adapt the php scripts to the changed paths.
I set avantfax up as a normal web app with its own directory definition in
/etc/apache2/httpd.conf.local. I can't stand they way they want it to function
as a virtual host. That would be a pain. I just put avantfax in
/srv/www/avantfax and give it the following definition in httpd.conf.local:
#
## AvantFax secure fax system directory
#
Alias /avantfax/ "/srv/www/avantfax/"
Alias /avantfax "/srv/www/avantfax/"
2) Replacing files from hylafax with symlinks to avantfax replacements is a no-go for rpm packages. The name of the scripts to call must be made configurable *in Hylafax*.
This will require more study on my part :-(
3) Having a sudoers entry for HTTPDUSER that includes /sbin/reboot and /sbin/halt will earn you some discussion with our security folks.
I completely disable these in my config. Instead, I use the following sudoers entries. wwwrun ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/faxdeluser, /usr/sbin/faxadduser -u * -p * * That way, the only way permissions given to wwwrun are faxdeluser and faxadduser. Bouncing or halting the server is reserved for normal management by ssh.
4) You can't simply start all services you need from an rpm package. IMNSHO the only clean solution would be an init script that depends on all services that avantfax needs but otherwise does nothing more than report status.
This is where managing avantfax as a normal web app helps. All you need is the "chkconfig hylafax on" and "chkconfig apache2 on" and avantfax is available. If the user isn't starting them to begin with, then hylafax and avantfax wouldn't be of any use.
5) As we don't have any means for interactive installation a rather extensive README needs to be written that explains the user what and how to configure.
I have an opensuse specific config for avantfax that configures: /srv/www/avantfax/includes/config.php /srv/www/avantfax/includes/local_config.php
I hope SuSE will see fit to use var/spool/hylafax instead of using a /custom directory and being out of sync with the rest of the Linux /community.
+1 Being out of step with the rest of the Linux distros and the packager itself makes it near impossible to stick to the "pristine" source rpm philosophy.
Hylafax currently needs a new maintainer, which can be anyone from the community. This maintainer could change the default to /var/spool/hylafax , though he would have to regard the update path.
Philipp
Regardless of the amount of work these two packages need to be packaged for openSuSE, it is 100% worth the effort. These applications are fantastic and epitomize the elegant way open-source creates vital solutions to real world business application needs. HylaFAX is the #1 fax solution for Linux and Avantfax provides an excellent web interface for fax management. There is something to be said for being able to sit in a Tokyo airport and fax a document from openOffice via your fax server in Texas with nothing more than the push of a button on your laptop or to receive a pdf of a document that was faxed to your office just minutes before either by email or download (your choice). ;-) -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 08/09/09 18:46, David C. Rankin wrote: I can't stand they way they want it to function
as a virtual host. That would be a pain.
Sure, proper configurations are sometimes very painful ;)
Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks AllowOverride AuthConfig Options FileInfo Limit # Address rewrite for secure connection in not local <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^192\.168\.6\. RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on RewriteRule .* https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L] </IfModule> # Authenticate if not local
No, If you aim to determine what "local access" is by providing a regular expression that matches a certain subnet, you will D.o.S yourself sooner or later, IP based access policies are the wrong thing to do. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Tuesday 08 September 2009 06:08:28 pm Cristian Rodríguez wrote:
Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks AllowOverride AuthConfig Options FileInfo Limit # Address rewrite for secure connection in not local <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^192\.168\.6\. RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on RewriteRule .* https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L] </IfModule> # Authenticate if not local No, If you aim to determine what "local access" is by providing a regular expression that matches a certain subnet, you will D.o.S yourself sooner or later, IP based access policies are the wrong thing to do.
Hmm, That's good to know. I took the example from the www.apache.org manual, so I thought I was safe. What is the right access policy approach to make sure I don't D.o.S myself?/ -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 08/09/09 19:21, David C. Rankin wrote:
That's good to know. I took the example from the www.apache.org manual, so I thought I was safe.
It is safe, I'm not saying it is not. What is the right access policy approach to make sure I
don't D.o.S myself?/
By D.o.S'ing yourself I mean that you may want to access the service from a different "local" ip address and you wont be able or it will ask for password. The only sane solution for this is IMHO, to setup the service in a "virtualhost" and make it available requiring VPN access. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Tue, 8 Sep 2009 17:46:12 -0500, you wrote:
3) Having a sudoers entry for HTTPDUSER that includes /sbin/reboot and /sbin/halt will earn you some discussion with our security folks.
I completely disable these in my config. Instead, I use the following sudoers entries.
wwwrun ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/faxdeluser, /usr/sbin/faxadduser -u * -p * *
That way, the only way permissions given to wwwrun are faxdeluser and faxadduser. Bouncing or halting the server is reserved for normal management by ssh.
That's my line of thinking too :)
This is where managing avantfax as a normal web app helps. All you need is +1 Being out of step with the rest of the Linux distros and the packager itself makes it near impossible to stick to the "pristine" source rpm philosophy.
You obviously failed to notice that I had quoted you and did not take your POV :) IMO it *is* a good decision to use /var/spool/fax.
Regardless of the amount of work these two packages need to be packaged for openSuSE, it is 100% worth the effort.
Hmm, how about you maintaining it with me as a co-maintainer? Philipp -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wednesday 09 September 2009 07:00:39 pm Philipp Thomas wrote:
Hmm, how about you maintaining it with me as a co-maintainer?
Philipp
More than happy to help. My time is kind of spotty. Some times I'll have plenty of free time over the course of a few weeks, other times I can be swamped for 3-4 weeks straight. Right now I am pretty up on both packages, so if you want to set the project up somewhere, we can go ahead and get started. Right now the ifax folks are still using my 10.3 box to troubleshoot an issue with 6.0.3 spewing information into the logs and also a .pdf submission error. Once they have a handle on that, we should have a hylafax source we can work with. Currently I have had to hack the hfaxd/InetFaxServer.c++ file to stop the logs from filing up. I'll give you a shout when I have an answer to that issue. It's openSuSE specific, so that has to be solved first. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (5)
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Philipp Thomas