========================================================================= Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 23:59:05 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Voja Subject: inversion on table columns after vacuum and dump Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hello, I have noticed that after vacuuming "vacuum all with (statistics, purge)" and backup "dump 0 disk '/directory/file.dmp'" Illustra, all the columns in NS/Admin Database Services will appear to be upside down (i.e. last will come first in the list of fields once you get to the table Edit/Search). Does anyone know why this happens and if it can be prevented? Thanks, Voja. P.S. I'm using NS 2.1 and Illsutra on NT. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 00:14:20 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Voja Subject: saleability of NS Server Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi, Did anyone tried running NS Server on a multi headed machine, preferably NT but Solaris will be of interest also? If yes, I'd be interested in experiences you had with respect to performance. One the similar note, Doug, are there any plans to build NS to run in a distributed environment with one machine being a controller and tasking the others? NetD and some other guys doing app servers are doing this successfully. Thanks a bunch for any info you might have, Voja. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 00:14:21 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Voja Subject: chicken and egg problem with sourcing on startup Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hello again, I'm trying to bring some values from a table into app server (i.e. cash them as global) on server startup. But any attempt to call ns_db from a script that initializes from a private scripts will fail at system startup as shared scripts/modules have not been sourced yet and the thing does not know about ns_db (the order of evaluation is private first, shared second, in alphabetical order ...). Does anyone has a suggestion on how to beat this as putting my script among shared ones is not an option on the particular system I'm trying to deploy on? Thanks a bunch, Voja. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 00:55:48 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Voja Subject: multi part upload on NS 2.1 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I remember seeing some questions on the subject before but don't remember if there was a definitive answer. I'm trying to do a multi part upload on NS 2.1 and would like to know if something like this can be built in TCL and added on to it. I know that 2.2 and 2.3 have it but 2.1 is the end of the road for me and I really need the functionality. If that is possible any pointers as to how that could be done would be highly appreciated. Thanks again, Voja. P.S. Sorry for the slew of Qs but it just accumulated over time. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 17:20:05 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Doug McKee Subject: Re: saleability (scaleability) of NS Server In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19980202000116.00c55100@internet.visioninc.com> (message from Voja on Mon, 2 Feb 1998 00:14:20 -0800) >>>>> "Voja" == Voja writes: Voja> Hi, Voja> Did anyone tried running NS Server on a multi headed Voja> machine, preferably NT but Solaris will be of interest also? Voja> If yes, I'd be interested in experiences you had with Voja> respect to performance. We run AOLserver all the time on multi-CPU hardware (inc. SGI and DEC) with great success. Voja> One the similar note, Doug, are there any plans to build NS Voja> to run in a distributed environment with one machine being a Voja> controller and tasking the others? NetD and some other guys Voja> doing app servers are doing this successfully. You are certainly welcome to write applications using this style -- AOLserver includes lots of socket primitives to help. But for the most part, we build our apps such that they can be scattered over several front end boxes without having to connect to other "worker" servers. doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug McKee, Manager, Web Server Development Email: doug@aol.net America Online, Inc. 8619 Westwood Center Drive Vienna, VA 22182 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 17:24:04 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Doug McKee Subject: Re: chicken and egg problem with sourcing on startup Comments: cc: steelerjs@aol.com In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19980202001308.00c17eb0@internet.visioninc.com> (message from Voja on Mon, 2 Feb 1998 00:14:21 -0800) >>>>> "Voja" == Voja writes: Voja> Hello again, I'm trying to bring some values from a table Voja> into app server (i.e. cash them as global) on server Voja> startup. But any attempt to call ns_db from a script that Voja> initializes from a private scripts will fail at system Voja> startup as shared scripts/modules have not been sourced yet Voja> and the thing does not know about ns_db (the order of Voja> evaluation is private first, shared second, in alphabetical Voja> order ...). Voja> Does anyone has a suggestion on how to beat this as putting Voja> my script among shared ones is not an option on the Voja> particular system I'm trying to deploy on? First, we realize we screwed up when we decided that we should source private tcl before shared and we'll have this fixed when we release 2.3. Second, your best bet is to put your tcl in its own subdirectory of modules/tcl and to add a line to your .ini file that loads the module; e.g., [ns/server/server1/modules] ... mystuff=Tcl ; assumes dir is modules/tcl/mystuff doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug McKee, Manager, Web Server Development Email: doug@aol.net America Online, Inc. 8619 Westwood Center Drive Vienna, VA 22182 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 00:06:41 -0800 Reply-To: heisler@teleport.com Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: heisler Subject: Re: Chicken and Egg MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have started storing all private tcl in a db. I use NT and 2.1. I found that the ns_db services were not available when the private tcl was being sourced. Here's the workaround I used. proc codeloader {} { #abunch of ns_db and eval stuff } ns_schedule -once 5 {codeloader} ns_schedule will call the codeloader after 5 seconds. You might get away with less than 5 seconds depending on how long it takes the ns_db functionality to initialize on your machine. -Hal Heisler ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 23:51:06 -0800 Reply-To: heisler@teleport.com Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: heisler Subject: file upload Comments: To: lpv@visioninc.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A link to this script was posted to the AOLServer list sometime back. I tried it with NT and found that as is it includes the end boundary line with uploaded text files. Has anyone had any success with uploading binary files with NT and 2.1? I included a couple of procedures that I used to test the dci_formdata proc. #This script replaces the function #"ns_conn form $conn". This script #writes all the content data to a #temp file, if it incounters a file #that has been uploaded in the #in the content it writes that data #to another temp file. This script #is written entirly in Tcl, so it #should work on any AOLServer #platform although you do need #to change the uploaded temp #file naming convention for NT. #This script was written on 2.1, #but I believe will work on 2.0. #This script should handle multiple #files being uploaded at once too, #in theory anyway. ## # DCI Form handling utility # # This file contains the procedures to handle # the Netscape file upload widget as # well as handling normal formdata. # # $Id: dci_formdata.tcl,v 1.6 1997/01/23 17:21:57 gnat Exp $ ## # gnat - Thu Jan 2 17:06:25 EST 1997 # Added the dci_formdata.tcl file to tclutil with # dci_formdata and dci_getformdata # gnat - Wed Jan 15 13:13:24 EST 1997 # Had Jim help fix the out of order problem in dci_formdata ## # set form [dci_formdata $conn] # # returns all formdata in a ns_set ## proc dci_formdata { c } { # Get our content-type set conn_type [ns_set iget [ns_conn headers $c] content-type] # Decide the type of data we have if { [string compare $conn_type "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"] == 0 || $conn_type == "" } { # Handle normal POST data set form [ns_conn form $c] } elseif { [string first "multipart/form-data" $conn_type] >= 0 } { # Handle Multipart data (i.e. uploaded files) # Write the content data to a temp file set in_file [ns_tmpnam] set fp [open $in_file w] ns_conncptofp $c $fp close $fp # Re-open the content file for reading set fp [open $in_file r] # Get the data boundary line set b "--[lindex [split $conn_type "="] 1]" set b_end "$b--\r" append b "\r" set start 0 set end 0 # Create a new ns_set to hold all the formdata set form [ns_set create] # Read in all the formdata while { ![eof $fp] } { set str [gets $fp] # Compare this line with the boundary line. # If they don't match get a new line and # try again if { [string compare $b $str] != 0 } { continue } # Boundary line matched. Get the next line # with the field names set str [gets $fp] set str [split $str ";"] # If there are 2 elements to the list # we have normal formdata here. If there # three elements we have a uploaded file. # If it is anything else we treat it as # garbage and go on. if { [llength $str] == 2 } { # Get the name of the field set name [string trim [string trimright [lindex [split [lindex $str 1] "="] 1] "\r"] "\""] set value "" # The next line is blank to read it, but ignore it. set mark [tell $fp] set temp [gets $fp] # Start reading the data for this field. set mark [tell $fp] set temp [gets $fp] # Keep reading until we find the next boundary # or the end of file is reached. while { [string compare $temp $b_end] != 0 && [string compare $temp $b] != 0 && ![eof $fp] } { # Build the field value if { $value == "" } { set value [string trimright $temp "\r"] } else { append value "\n[string trimright $temp "\r"]" } set mark [tell $fp] set temp [gets $fp] } # Go back to the begining of the next # boundary marker. seek $fp $mark # Add this data to the ns_set ns_set put $form $name $value # If we are at the end of the file quit # otherwise go on. if { [eof $fp] } { break } else { continue } } elseif { [llength $str] == 3 } { # Set the field name to what it should be, # but use the file name from the clients # system as the value set name [string trim [lindex [split [lindex $str 1] "="] 1] "\""] set value [string trim [string trimright [lindex [split [lindex $str 2] "="] 1] "\r"] "\""] # Handle ugly windows file names set tmp [split $value {}] if { [lindex $tmp 1] == ":" && [lindex $tmp 2] == "\\" } { set len [llength $tmp] while { [lindex $tmp $len] != "\\" } { incr len -1 } incr len set value "" while { $len < [llength $tmp] } { append value [lindex $tmp $len] incr len } } # Put the field name and the clients filename # in the ns_set ns_set put $form $name $value # Skip the next line. If you want get the content-type # you would put something after this gets to grab it. # the content-type line looks like: # Content-Type: text/html while {[gets $fp temp] >= 0} {if [string match "\r" $temp] break} set start [tell $fp] # Keep looping until we find the next boundary # Get the byte marker before we read so we can # back up after finding the marker while { [string compare $temp $b] != 0 && [string compare $temp $b_end] != 0} { set end [tell $fp] set temp [gets $fp] incr end -2 } # Figure out the number of bytes to copy set nbytes [expr $end - $start] # Get another temp name and attach the clients # filename to it. # NOTE: NT users need to change this since you # can't have a filename like # C:\temp\tempname.tmp.image.gif set tmpnam "[ns_tmpnam].$value" #set tmpnam "$value" set wfp [open $tmpnam w] # Rewind to the begining of the data seek $fp $start # Copy all the data to a new file ns_cpfp $fp $wfp $nbytes close $wfp # Make sure we are just before the boundary seek $fp $end # Add "_temp" to the field name so it looks # something like "file1_temp" append name "_temp" # Add the "temp" field name and the temp # file name to the ns_set ns_set put $form "$name" $tmpnam continue } else { continue } } close $fp # Get rid of the temp content file ns_unlink $in_file } else { # Handle unknown content types return "Unknown content-type: $conn_type" } set new [ns_set create] while {[ns_set size $form] > 0} { set key [ns_set key $form 0] if [ns_set unique $form $key] { set value [ns_set value $form 0] ns_set delete $form 0 } else { while {[set i [ns_set find $form $key]] >= 0} { lappend value [ns_set value $form $i] ns_set delete $form $i } } ns_set put $new $key $value unset value } return $new } ## # dci_getformdata $conn # # gets all the formdata and sets local tcl variable # "key" to value for n elements in the form. ## proc dci_getformdata { c } { set form [dci_formdata $c] if { $form == "" } { return 0 } uplevel set _dciset $form uplevel { for { set _i 0 } { $_i < [ns_set size $_dciset] } { incr _i } { set "[ns_set key $_dciset $_i]" "[ns_set value $_dciset $_i]" } unset _dciset } return [ns_set size $form] } # #Procs to test dci_formdata # ns_register_proc GET /fileupload fileupload ns_register_proc POST /fileupload fileuploadp proc fileupload {conn i} { ns_return $conn 200 text/html "
Send this file:
" } proc fileuploadp {conn i} { set form [dci_formdata $conn] set a [ns_set get $form userfile] set b [ns_set get $form userfile_temp] ns_return $conn 200 text/html "

RESULTS OF multipart/form-data

FILE UPLOAD

NAME OF FILE UPLOADED=$a

The uploaded file now resides on the [info server] server. It was named
$b " } ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 00:58:12 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: James Smallacombe Subject: SSL revisited MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Since AOL is no longer distributing 128 bit SSL, what a are most of you doing for SSL? Running Apache Stronghold in parallel with AOLserver? Is there an alternative that doesn't cost hundreds of dollars? TIA, James Smallacombe Internet Access for Bucks County james@pil.net And Philadelphia, PA. PlantageNet Internet Ltd. http://www.pil.net "I'll plant Plantagenet, root him up who dares." 3Henry Vi, I,i For PGP public key: http://www.pil.net/~james/mypubkey.txt -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNNax/oqTSnSzxaDVAQGspwP+OlzrBzGno0PpNPnNs9iDCXBsenxwyVK2 ii9yQm5ysj6k2ktG4EbN5z+r4dXGJu7rRhmUYjKBWXcGBz02J+76h7XouyK4WB56 d8gqt8mp0A2hHD+KwKasBnzCGh43EyJPe+vkAieHlOmNfIGfnEkmZ53TzLGI3MgJ lI3ljqAoaHk= =37sR -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 01:55:12 -0500 Reply-To: philg@mit.edu Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Philip Greenspun Subject: scalability of AOLserver In-Reply-To: <199802030504.AAA23559@services.web.aol.com> (message from Automatic digest processor on Tue, 3 Feb 1998 00:02:13 -0500) Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 00:14:20 -0800 From: Voja Subject: saleability of NS Server Hi, Did anyone tried running NS Server on a multi headed machine, preferably NT but Solaris will be of interest also? If yes, I'd be interested in experiences you had with respect to performance. I run AOLserver on 4-CPU Solaris and HP-UX boxes. I can serve 20 hits/second without the load of AOLserver being noticeable. All of the CPU and memory and disk ends up going to the RDBMS. One the similar note, Doug, are there any plans to build NS to run in a distributed environment with one machine being a controller and tasking the others? NetD and some other guys doing app servers are doing this successfully. I think these servers are horrible ideas. There is no reason to introduce all of this complexity just to do Web service. I want to have no more than two Unix programs running: 1) RDBMS 2) Web server Then I have a chance of figuring out what is wrong. If I were to replace AOLserver with something, I'd like it to be a Java program (or something) running inside the RDBMS so that I'm down to just the RDBMS. I certainly would not replace AOLserver with some hairy huge collection of processes and machines. Especially given that you could probably serve 10 million static hits/day from a modestly priced Unix box running AOLserver 2.3. My philosophy is to get a big enough machine to run the database and then add 10% RAM and CPU to also support AOLserver. Philip ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 09:43:38 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Doug McKee Subject: Top 5 non-AOL AOLserver sites Hey all, We're revamping the AOLserver web site right now and want to have a section dedicated to the "top 5" non-AOL AOLserver sites. In particular we're looking for a mix of interesting applications, web hosting providers, and high profile sites. So send me your URL(s) and a couple sentences describing your site(s) before the end of week! thanks, doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug McKee, Manager, Web Server Development Email: doug@aol.net America Online, Inc. 8619 Westwood Center Drive Vienna, VA 22182 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 04:52:10 +0100 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Marco Coletti Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?ns=5Furlencode_=E0=E8=E9=EC=F2=F9?= Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable To whoever is using AOLserver 2.1 for Win NT. It seems that [ns_urlencode =E0=E8=E9=EC=F2=F9] causes a GPF (analogous to= Unix core dump). ns_urlencode can't manage characters whose ASCII code is greater than 127. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Marco Coletti Network Administrator, Webmaster, Computer Consultant PGP public key: http://keys.pgp.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=3Dget&exact=3Don&search=3D0x96A79061 finger://mail.eurofin.it/marco.coletti Fingerprint: 9F E5 80 61 F6 9F 05 2D EA 53 6F 2D 82 8B C7 C2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 23:05:21 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jeff Huber Subject: Re: ns urlencode אטילעש MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit We've gotten around this bug by using the following code: --- BEGIN CODE --- rename ns_urlencode ns_urlencode_old proc ns_urlencode {string} { if {[regsub -all \[^\t\n\r\x20-~\] $string "" newstring] != 0} { ns_log2 Notice "ns_urlencode had to remove illegal \ characters in string: $string" red } return [ns_urlencode_old $newstring] } --- END CODE --- Marco Coletti wrote: > > To whoever is using AOLserver 2.1 for Win NT. > > It seems that [ns_urlencode אטילעש] causes a GPF (analogous to Unix core > dump). > ns_urlencode can't manage characters whose ASCII code is greater than 127. > -- -------------------------------------------------------- | Jeff Huber | mailto:jeff@alienbob.com | | AM.net Programmer | AOLserver Mailing List Moderator | | http://am.net/ | http://www.aolserver.com/ | -------------------------------------------------------- -=- Visit Me on the Web: http://alienbob.com/ -=- ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 00:59:08 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Voja Subject: Problems with ODBC Driver on Oracle8 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi, We have started to test Oracle8 on NT with AOLserver 2.1. using ODBC driver. So far, we got it up and running and have a limited functionality via /NS/Admin. Many issues came up. >From the real problem that "Execute Arbitrary SQL" in not working at all for us to the anoying things like searching on a pool bringing up all the tables (system and actual data) even without "Include system catalogs in table list" being checked. Be that as it may, the biggest problem seems to be the performance - a simple search is taking an order of magnitude or more time (i.e. CPU) then what it takes Illustra in the same environment. I would appreciate if someone would be able to comment on this and whether this is something one should expect or we have something miss configured or plain wrong. Thanks, Voja. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 01:06:51 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Voja Subject: zombie MISERVER.EXE with Illustra on NT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" We have started to notice a problem with our Illustra installation lately ( NS2.1 on NT with Illustra 3.2). Our system would grind to a halt after 15 to 30 MISREVER.EXE processes get instantiated and eat up the memory just siting there. Task Manager would list them all out as inactive (CPU = 0) except for the one or two that are actually working. Sometimes they are all 0 as no action is taken on the DB. The only way out or this is to restart the process or reboot. Would anyone know what could be that is causing this (in configuration of Illustra or NS2.1?) or a way to get around the problem automatically when it occurs? Thanks, Voja. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 03:19:44 +0100 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Marco Coletti Subject: Re: zombie MISERVER.EXE with Illustra on NT Comments: cc: foronif@informix.com In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19980206010638.00c565f0@internet.visioninc.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 01.06 06/02/98 -0800, you wrote: >We have started to notice a problem with our Illustra installation lately ( >NS2.1 on NT with Illustra 3.2). >Our system would grind to a halt after 15 to 30 MISREVER.EXE processes get >instantiated and eat up the memory just siting there. Same problem for me. On NT 3.51 Illustra seems to slowly bring the system in a state where it eats up all the memory, then Illustra itself tends to go crazy leaving alive some spawned MISERVER processes even if the associated TCP connection is closed (or perhaps it is the TCP/IP software that believes that a TCP connection is still open even if the remote host/process has closed it down; see NETSTAT -n -a). A careful examination (Performance Monitor, but I like better the console utility PMON.EXE for this task) reveals that almost all the memory is taken by the file cache process: as soon as there is some database activity the file cache seems to grow without limits, and, somewhat unexpectedly, the system is unable to free some of the memory allocated to the file cache process when it is needed by some other process (in this case, MIDAEMON and MISERVERs); this happily triggers the use of virtual memory and the machine starts to trash. Altough there is no substitute for more RAM, some action can and should be taken to convince the file cache to be more well behaved. NT comes with some default settings which are optimized for the role of "network file server"; I'm talking about ControlPanel|Network|Server configuration: it brings out a box where you can choose among four alternatives. I do not remember exactly what they are called, but they sound something like: File Server, Application Server, Balance, Minimize memory used. This setting has a strong influence on the way the system manages the memory allocated to the file cache, and the default setting, which is "File Server", allows the file cache to grow until the system runs out of memory, without regard to the other processes. Some documentation about this fact can be retrieved through Microsoft (ex) Knowledege Base http://www.microsoft.com/kb/. I believe that the default setting is disastrous except when your server has a lot of clients that access a lot of files on it. When the server acts more like an application server, which is the case when it is devoted to run Illustra and/or AOLserver, it is certainly much better to choose "Application Server" or even "Balance" or "Minimize", depending on how much file access is going on (remember to reboot to activate the new setting). Maybe that restricting too much the file cache memory has a negative impact on Illustra performance (after all, it is itself a process that accesses a lot of disk files which constitute the databases), but I suspect that Illustra already caches internally some database chunks. This simple configuration change has almost solved the problem for me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Marco Coletti Network Administrator, Webmaster, Computer Consultant PGP public key: http://keys.pgp.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&exact=on&search=0x96A79061 finger://mail.eurofin.it/marco.coletti Fingerprint: 9F E5 80 61 F6 9F 05 2D EA 53 6F 2D 82 8B C7 C2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 14:00:16 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Organization: Merit Software, Inc. Subject: Redundant authorization requests MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I'm running 2.3 beta 2. If I do a TCl reinit, the server asks for authorization (correct), then does the reinit. Then if I immediately restart the server from the browser, I have to reauthorize (same userid and password), then it asks for another authorization. If cancel is hit, the restart server screen still comes up (because the auth info is already correct). Jim ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 22:43:12 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Joe Andrieu Subject: Linux 4.2 Postgres & AOLServer 2.2 In-Reply-To: <199802080502.AAA04399@services.web.aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hello, I'm just getting my database connected to the server and ran into a problem I thought I saw answered somewhere, but can't find it. I seem to have most of the system working. AOLServer can connect to the DB. I can create a table. But I can't see any tables. Is this a known bug? Or known user-error? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks. -j -- Joe Andrieu Association of Internet Professionals Co-Founder, Secretary http://www.association.org mailto:andrieu@andrieu.net ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 01:11:36 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Krish Menon Subject: Moderator's Note: ** How To Unsubscribe From This List ** Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Greetings, and belated new year wishes from your friendly AOLServer list moderators. There are several requests a week that send "unsubscribe" requests to the wrong address. This note is to provide specific instructions to remove yourself from this list, if that is your need. You may use ANY ONE of the following methods: 1. Send an email to: LISTSERV@SERVICES.WEB.AOL.COM with the following line in the message body: signoff aolserver 2. Visit http://www.aolserver.com/server/listserv.adp and fill out the simple form fields with appropriate values. Caveat: ======= In some cases, you may try one of the above methods and still find mail from the list coming to you. This is probably because the subscription email was sent from an address that is different from the one you are using now. This often happens when you decide to forward mail from a defunct email address to a new one. In extreme cases, it may become necessary for me to scan through the list with clues from you to find the errant email address. If this is your situation, email me directly at krish@netrox.net or Jeff Huber at jhuber@am.net and we will be glad to help you. Thanks, Krish ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 14:14:47 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jordie Subject: Exception: 'row too wide' Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" An Illustra type questions to ponder. Please keep in mind that this is a PrimeHost Commercial Level account and not an in-house server. There seems to be a constricting limit as too how much info can be stored in a row. Does anyone know of a work around or setting adjustment to get around the error returned below? >The following database exception was raised while the server was attempting to satisfy your request: > > XMH009:row is too wide: 8168 > >For further assistance, contact the server administrator. I know could upload the .txt files to the server and then put entries in the table to reference the .txt files, but I'm hoping there is a more straight-forward way. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 20:26:26 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Igor Baikalov Subject: Proxy I/O timeout Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I'm using AOLserver 2.2 on DEC Alpha with Sybase SQL Server on Windows NT. External driver (nsext.so) fills up a server log with tons of messages: [10/Feb/1998:20:03:33 -0800][168][syb] Notice: ExtDb: Connected: : [10/Feb/1998:20:03:33 -0800][168][syb] Notice: Ns_ExtOpenDb(External): Opened datasource: : with Sybase Proxy Daemon v1.0 [10/Feb/1998:20:04:35 -0800][168][syb] Warning: ExtDb: Proxy I/O timeout (exceeded 60 seconds). ... 1) Is it normal? 2) Is there any way to reduce this flow? Thanks, Igor Baikalov UCLA-DOE Lab of Structural Biology http://www.doe-mbi.ucla.edu/ and Molecular Medicine ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 11:56:54 +0100 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Michael Juergens Organization: Crocodial Communications Subject: AOL-Server authentication Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------2E63DE3411591B3924FA4B0C" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------2E63DE3411591B3924FA4B0C Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, is it possible to install another authentication mechanism on AOLServer? I take a look at ns_register_filter. But it seems that it is impossible to install ther another authentication module. Many thanks, Michael Juergens -- ------------------------ Michael Juergens m.juergens@crocodial.de Crocodial Communications Ophagen 16 a D-20257 Hamburg Tel: +49.40.8532640 Fax: +49.40.85326464 http://www.crocodial.de --------------2E63DE3411591B3924FA4B0C Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="vcard.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Card for Michael Juergens Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="vcard.vcf" begin: vcard fn: Michael Juergens n: Juergens;Michael org: Crocodial Communications adr: Ophagen 16a;;;Hamburg;;D-20257;Germany email;internet: m.juergens@crocodial.de tel;work: +49.40.8532640 tel;fax: +49.40.85326464 tel;home: +49.4153.58.2313 x-mozilla-cpt: ;0 x-mozilla-html: TRUE end: vcard --------------2E63DE3411591B3924FA4B0C-- ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 07:46:19 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jeff Rawlings Subject: Re: Exception: 'row too wide' Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 02:14 PM 2/9/98 -0500, you wrote: [...] >> XMH009:row is too wide: 8168 >> >>For further assistance, contact the server administrator. I believe the maximum size of a row in Illustra is 8192 bytes. I don't think there's any way around that -- sorry. >I know could upload the .txt files to the server and then put entries in >the table to reference the .txt files, but I'm hoping there is a more >straight-forward way. No, I'm not aware of a more straight-forward way -- this is the method I'm using. I have a file naming scheme based on the value of the row's primary key. Cheers, --Jeff Rawlings Board of Directors, Association of Internet Professionals jrawlings@association.org -- http://www.association.org Senior Interactive Media Developer, America Online rawlings@aol.net -- http://www.primehost.com ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 10:51:33 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Doug McKee Subject: Re: AOL-Server authentication In-Reply-To: <34E183F6.595DDC09@crocodial.de> (message from Michael Juergens on Wed, 11 Feb 1998 11:56:54 +0100) >>>>> "Michael" == Michael Juergens writes: Michael> is it possible to install another authentication Michael> mechanism on AOLServer? I take a look at Michael> ns_register_filter. But it seems that it is impossible to Michael> install ther another authentication module. Yes, but you need to write it in C; see Ns_SetRequestAuthorizeProc. doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug McKee, Manager, Web Server Development Email: doug@aol.net America Online, Inc. 8619 Westwood Center Drive Vienna, VA 22182 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 01:49:57 -0500 Reply-To: philg@mit.edu Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Philip Greenspun Subject: row too wide Comments: cc: rawlings@aol.net In-Reply-To: <199802120505.AAA17479@services.web.aol.com> (message from Automatic digest processor on Thu, 12 Feb 1998 00:03:41 -0500) Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 07:46:19 -0500 From: Jeff Rawlings Subject: Re: Exception: 'row too wide' At 02:14 PM 2/9/98 -0500, you wrote: [...] >> XMH009:row is too wide: 8168 >> >>For further assistance, contact the server administrator. I believe the maximum size of a row in Illustra is 8192 bytes. I don't think there's any way around that -- sorry. >I know could upload the .txt files to the server and then put entries in >the table to reference the .txt files, but I'm hoping there is a more >straight-forward way. No, I'm not aware of a more straight-forward way -- this is the method I'm using. I have a file naming scheme based on the value of the row's primary key. Illustra sucks in a variety of ways (some of them documented at http://photo.net/wtr/ ) but it doesn't suck this hard... All anyone needs to do is define the moby columns as "large_text". Illustra will then store them "out of the row". They can be up to 2 GB or something. The DOC data type is row-agile and will be stored in-row up to 256 bytes (by default) and out of row if larger. There is a performance hit to using large_text since I think Illustra behind the scenes is in fact just reading a separate Unix file. More importantly, Illustra is not using its wired-down cache for these data. But anyway you still get transaction control over your data. Philip ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 01:53:05 -0500 Reply-To: philg@mit.edu Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Philip Greenspun Subject: authentication Comments: cc: m.juergens@crocodial.de is it possible to install another authentication mechanism on AOLServer? I take a look at ns_register_filter. But it seems that it is impossible to install ther another authentication module. Uh... ns_register_filter can be another authentication module. In fact, I've used it this way a bunch of times when I didn't feel like reading through the AOLserver docs and/or didn't think nsperm was flexible enough (e.g., I use a filter to deny access to /NS/Admin if [ns_conn driver] != "nssssl" ). In my server-side programming chapter of http://photo.net/wtr/thebook/ (draft revision of http://photo.net/wtr/dead-trees/ ), I include an AOLserver filter authentication example. There is IMHO no reason to adopt Doug's suggestion and start hacking C code. Philip ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 18:36:50 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Joe Andrieu Subject: PostgreSQL? In-Reply-To: <199802120508.AAA17492@services.web.aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hello, Is anyone out there successfully using PostgreSQL? I've got it half-running, but could use some help. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, -j -- Joe Andrieu Association of Internet Professionals Co-Founder, Secretary http://www.association.org mailto:andrieu@andrieu.net ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 14:03:41 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Kriston J. Rehberg" Subject: Re: PostgreSQL? In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980212183650.034956ac@ugcs.caltech.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Yes, I have been running it for some time. What version of AOLserver are you using it with? Some improvements have been made recently in the PostgreSQL driver to enable ExtendedTableInfo and other nice things (like running with 6.1 and better versions of PostgreSQL). Let me know these details and we'll see what kind of trouble you're having! Enjoy, Kris Joe Andrieu writes: >Hello, > >Is anyone out there successfully using PostgreSQL? I've got it >half-running, but could use some help. Any assistance would be greatly >appreciated. > >Cheers, > >-j >-- >Joe Andrieu Association of Internet Professionals >Co-Founder, Secretary http://www.association.org >mailto:andrieu@andrieu.net -- Kriston J. Rehberg Systems Development http://kriston.net/ America Online, Inc. Vienna, Virginia USA endeavor to persevere ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 09:45:03 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver Comments: Authenticated sender is From: John Buckman Organization: Shelby Group Ltd. Subject: An #Include HTML tag? In-Reply-To: <199802160205.VAA21748@services.web.aol.com> We're moving someone's web site from Apache to AOLServer, and the person says that they make extensive use of a "#include" server-side tag on Apache, which inserts the HTML from the named file in at the point. This tag is useful for doing things such as simple advertising banners (the banner ad is in a single file) that apply to many pages. While it would be simple to extend AolServer to have such a command, I wondered if such a command already existed. I could find no such built-in function, and was wondering if anyone else knew of one. If no such function exists, I'll write one up and post it to this list. john John Buckman Shelby Group Ltd. http://www.shelby.com Developers of Lyris Email List Server ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 13:28:10 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Kriston J. Rehberg" Subject: Re: An #Include HTML tag? In-Reply-To: <199802171736.JAA13884@mail.shelby.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sure, that's SHTML, a.k.a. Server-Size Includes. Just name your html files ".shtml" and AOLserver will handle SHTML just like Apache. The documentation for shtml is in the "Extend the AOLserver with CGI Scripts" manual. AOLserver goes one step further and allows you to map your ".html" files to be parsed just like ".shtml" files, which allows your server to use regular-looking URL's. See the "Map" parameter for details (here's an example of how I use it on one of my servers, but you do not need to do this just to enable shtml): [ns/server/servername/shtml] Map=/*.html(SetExpires) Map=/*.shtml(SetExpires) John Buckman writes: >We're moving someone's web site from Apache to AOLServer, and the person >says that they make extensive use of a "#include" server-side tag on >Apache, which inserts the HTML from the named file in at the point. This >tag is useful for doing things such as simple advertising banners (the >banner ad is in a single file) that apply to many pages. > >While it would be simple to extend AolServer to have such a command, I >wondered if such a command already existed. I could find no such >built-in function, and was wondering if anyone else knew of one. If no >such function exists, I'll write one up and post it to this list. > >john > >John Buckman >Shelby Group Ltd. http://www.shelby.com >Developers of Lyris Email List Server -- Kriston J. Rehberg Systems Development http://kriston.net/ America Online, Inc. Vienna, Virginia USA endeavor to persevere ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 13:41:40 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jeff Rawlings Subject: Re: An #Include HTML tag? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 09:45 AM 2/17/98 -0800, you wrote: >We're moving someone's web site from Apache to AOLServer, and the person >says that they make extensive use of a "#include" server-side tag on >Apache, which inserts the HTML from the named file in at the point. This >tag is useful for doing things such as simple advertising banners (the >banner ad is in a single file) that apply to many pages. Take a look at the AOLserver documentation on Server-parsed HTML. It's in the CGI section; here's the URL: http://www.aolserver.com/server/docs/2.2/html/shtml.htm In the future, you might consider using ADPs for that sort of thing. Instead of #include you would use <% ns_adp_include myfile.adp %>. Although your adp could just be a static piece of HTML, it could also be a script that adds some HTML dynamically. See the Tcl docs for AOLserver 2.2 for more information. Cheers, --Jeff Rawlings Board of Directors, Association of Internet Professionals jrawlings@association.org -- http://www.association.org Senior Interactive Media Developer, America Online rawlings@aol.net -- http://www.primehost.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 19:58:59 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Brad Chick Subject: redirecting part of domain Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Int he 2.2 documentation, there is a Domain Redirection Example. "This script uses ns_register_proc to redirect everything to another domain while preserving the URLs. For example, http://thissite/foo/bar.html will be redirected to http://www.newdomain.com/foo/bar.html." I am interested in redirecting *part* of a domain to another domain. So for example, http://www.thissite.com/just/pages/in/this_directory_and_below would be redirected to http://www.newdomain.com/just/pages/in/this_directory_and_below But all the other pages of thissite.com would not be redirected. Is there a simple way to accomplish this? Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --o / Brad Chick `\<, / "DoMan" 0/ 0 / \e/ Do It Sports, Inc. __o __o / I 150 S. Fifth Ave. `\<, `\<, / `\\, Suite C O/ O --o O/ O/ O/ O Ann Arbor, MI 48014 `\<, / 0/ 0 / Voice: (313) 998-0007 __o / Fax: (313) 998-0056 `\-\ / 0/ 0 http://www.doitsports.com / e-mail: doman@doitsports.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Doesn't matter where you finish, so long as you're sweating!" ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 00:33:27 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Organization: Merit Software, Inc. Subject: Re: redirecting part of domain Comments: To: Brad Chick MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The example code does this: ns_register_proc GET / movesite http://www.newdomain.com proc movesite {conn newlocation} { ns_returnredirect $conn 302 $newlocation[ns_conn url $conn] } to redirect on the pages in a specific directory, do: ns_register_proc GET /just/pages/in/this_drectory_and_below movesite http://www.newdomain.com The movesite proc stays the same. You may want to redirect the POST method too if you're running scripts to handle forms. Jim -------------------------------- I am interested in redirecting *part* of a domain to another domain. So for example, http://www.thissite.com/just/pages/in/this_directory_and_below would be redirected to http://www.newdomain.com/just/pages/in/this_directory_and_below But all the other pages of thissite.com would not be redirected. Is there a simple way to accomplish this? ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 00:49:06 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Doug McKee Subject: AOLserver news Comments: To: webdev@listserv.aol.com You may have already noticed we've re-done our website (http://www.aolserver.com), cleaning some things up, adding some information, and putting AOLpress on its own site (http://www.aolpress.com)! Check things out and let us know what you think (feedback@aolserver.com). In other news, the February 9th edition of the New York Times took a look at two AOLserver-based applications: http://arsdigita.com/remindme/ and http://arsdigita.com/tz/; check out the article on the web! And finally, you can expect another beta release of AOLserver 2.3 in the next few weeks -- we've discovered several optimizations that let you run incredibly fast ADP-based sites (like Digital City New York (http://ny.digitalcity.com)) -- and we're incorporating them now. The changes are significant enough that we feel it warrants another beta release. Til next time, doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug McKee, Manager, Web Server Development Email: doug@aol.net America Online, Inc. 8619 Westwood Center Drive Vienna, VA 22182 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 00:11:01 EST Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Angela Howard Subject: Changes planned for beta 3 release of v2.3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit The following changes to ADPs are planned for the beta 3 release of AOLserver 2.3. Since some of these changes involve alternate syntaxes than those used in beta 2, we'd like to hear your comments on these changes before we release beta 3. ADP cache - There will continue to be one central ADP cache for all Tcl threads, but the cache will use read/write locks to improve the performance in accessing ADPs from the cache. In-line conditionals - Because of the negative effects on the robustness of ADP pages, in-line conditionals and looping will be dropped. You will no longer be able to have partial Tcl statements inside an ADP script. For example, instead of doing this: <% if foo { %> some HTML <% } %> The preferred method is to do this: <% if foo { ns_adp_include foo.html } %> where foo.html contains the HTML you want to be included if the condition is true. Global ADP evaluation - There will be a new configuration parameter that determines whether ADPs are evaluated globally or locally. Currently, the default is that ADPs are evaluated globally, but the default of the new parameter will be that they are evaluated locally. For example, currently, if foo.html in the following ADP script uses a variable called abc, it will change the value of abc at the global level so that the output of ns_puts will not be 5. <% set abc 5 ns_adp_include foo.html ns_puts $abc %> The new default will be that foo.html will be evaluated at the local level, so that any changes to abc in foo.html will not affect the value of abc at the global level. If you want to affect the value of abc in foo.html, you can declare "global abc" in foo.html. Or, if you want all scripts evaluated globally, you can change the configuration parameter setting. ADP parameters - You will be able to send parameters to scripts invoked by ns_adp_include with syntax like this: ns_adp_include foo.html $a $b $c There will be new Tcl functions that you can use inside foo.html to retrieve the count and values of the passed-in parameters: ns_adp_argc - returns the number of parameters passed in ns_adp_argv - returns a list of the values of the passed-in parameters ns_adp_set_params - gets the passed-in parameters and binds them to local variables Log filename on ADP errors - When an error occurs while executing an ADP, the filename where the ADP resides will be included in the log entry. Continue on error - There will be a new configuration parameter that you can set to specify whether the page will continue to be processed if an ADP error occurs or whether an error page will be returned. ____________________________________ Angela Howard, Sr. Technical Writer AOL Web Server Development AMHoward@aol.com or angelah@aol.net ____________________________________ ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 18:39:18 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Organization: Merit Software, Inc. Subject: 2.3 beta 2 server hangs on Linux MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I'm developing a project using AOL server 2.3 beta 2 on Linux (RedHat 5.0, kernel 2.0.30, libc 2.0.5. Periodically the web server hangs up. The symptoms are: the broswer says it is connected and waiting for data nothing gets logged in the access files no nsd processes are running The hangs are sporadic at first - it appears that maybe one thread or process is stuck. Hitting ESC and making the request again usually works. It continues to get worse until everything is hung. The setup server also hangs - no authorization request every comes up. killall nsd killed all processes except 2, one owned by root, one by nsadmin. Killing those two with kill -9, then restarting the web server fixes everything. We never restarted the database server. I'm using TCL scripts exclusively - no CGI. This hanging thing has been a problem for years now. Is anyone trying to find out what is happening?? Jim Here is a ps for the nsd processes when things were totally stuck: [jim@oslo nslog]$ ps auxl FLAGS UID PID PPID PRI NI SIZE RSS WCHAN STA TTY TIME COMMAND 100140 0 8272 1 0 0 5872 3752 do_select S ? 0:33 /home/dbadmin/bin/solid -c/home/dbadmin/database/rj 100100 0 12918 1 0 0 1412 440 unix_data_w S ? 0:00 /home/nsadmin/bin/nsd -c /home/nsadmin/nsd.ini -i 100 502 15492 12918 0 0 3012 2300 sigsuspend S ? 0:00 /home/nsadmin/bin/nsd -c /home/nsadmin/nsd.ini -i -b4 40 502 15493 15492 0 0 3012 2300 do_select S ? 0:00 /home/nsadmin/bin/nsd -c /home/nsadmin/nsd.ini -i -b4 40 502 15496 15493 0 0 3012 2300 sigsuspend S ? 0:00 /home/nsadmin/bin/nsd -c /home/nsadmin/nsd.ini -i -b4 40 502 15497 15493 0 0 3012 2300 sigsuspend S ? 0:00 /home/nsadmin/bin/nsd -c /home/nsadmin/nsd.ini -i -b4 40 502 15499 15493 0 0 3012 2300 do_select S ? 0:00 /home/nsadmin/bin/nsd -c /home/nsadmin/nsd.ini -i -b4 [jim@oslo nslog]$ ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 12:24:19 +0100 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Edward C. Zimmermann" Subject: Re: 2.3 beta 2 server hangs on Linux In-Reply-To: <34F0B726.4E3D@meritnet.com> from "Jim Wilcoxson" at Feb 22, 98 06:39:18 pm Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit While previous version ran without any problems (been using Navi/GNN/AOL Server for some years now) the current b3 crashes from time to time under both: Release: 5.5 Kernel architecture: sun4m Application architecture: sparc Hardware provider: Sun_Microsystems Kernel version: SunOS 5.5 Generic 103093-05 July 1996 and Release: 5.5 Kernel architecture: sun4c Application architecture: sparc Hardware provider: Sun_Microsystems Kernel version: SunOS 5.5 Generic 103093-05 July 1996 It seems to be an error somewhere in the threading code but we have also checked and found that the server even crashed without any connects! Any comments? -- ______________________ Edward C. Zimmermann Basis Systeme netzwerk/Munich ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 07:14:32 -0600 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Michael Blair Subject: Re: 2.3 beta 2 server hangs on Linux MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit REMOVE robert@autosource-usa.com REMOVE autosource-usa.com REMOVE cardisk.com REMOVE conceptdesign.com REMOVE robert@conceptdesign.com -----Original Message----- From: Edward C. Zimmermann [SMTP:edz@BSN.COM] Sent: Monday, February 23, 1998 5:24 AM To: Multiple recipients of list AOLSERVER Subject: Re: 2.3 beta 2 server hangs on Linux While previous version ran without any problems (been using Navi/GNN/AOL Server for some years now) the current b3 crashes from time to time under both: Release: 5.5 Kernel architecture: sun4m Application architecture: sparc Hardware provider: Sun_Microsystems Kernel version: SunOS 5.5 Generic 103093-05 July 1996 and Release: 5.5 Kernel architecture: sun4c Application architecture: sparc Hardware provider: Sun_Microsystems Kernel version: SunOS 5.5 Generic 103093-05 July 1996 It seems to be an error somewhere in the threading code but we have also checked and found that the server even crashed without any connects! Any comments? -- ______________________ Edward C. Zimmermann Basis Systeme netzwerk/Munich ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 14:31:29 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Doug McKee Subject: Re: 2.3 beta 2 server hangs on Linux In-Reply-To: <34F0B726.4E3D@meritnet.com> (message from Jim Wilcoxson on Sun, 22 Feb 1998 18:39:18 -0500) >>>>> "Jim" == Jim Wilcoxson writes: Jim> I'm developing a project using AOL server 2.3 beta 2 on Linux Jim> (RedHat 5.0, kernel 2.0.30, libc 2.0.5. Periodically the web Jim> server hangs up. The symptoms are: the broswer says it is Jim> connected and waiting for data nothing gets logged in the Jim> access files no nsd processes are running Jim> The hangs are sporadic at first - it appears that maybe one Jim> thread or process is stuck. Hitting ESC and making the Jim> request again usually works. It continues to get worse until Jim> everything is hung. The setup server also hangs - no Jim> authorization request every comes up. Jim> killall nsd killed all processes except 2, one owned by root, Jim> one by nsadmin. Killing those two with kill -9, then Jim> restarting the web server fixes everything. We never Jim> restarted the database server. Jim> I'm using TCL scripts exclusively - no CGI. Jim> This hanging thing has been a problem for years now. Is Jim> anyone trying to find out what is happening?? We are actually reworking our Linux version right now and you should expect better behavior in the next beta release. doug ------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug McKee, Manager, Web Server Development Email: doug@aol.net America Online, Inc. 8619 Westwood Center Drive Vienna, VA 22182 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 19:43:04 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Organization: Merit Software, Inc. Subject: Files left in /tmp on Linux in 2.3b2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit We have written a TCL script that tortures AOL server by detaching a bunch of threads that loop calling ns_geturl. I'll post the script to the list when we understand what the issues are - right now there are enough things that appear broken that we are confused... One easy problem we've noticed is that files are left in /tmp named tmpf21458aaa etc. We have 550 there now. They contain the results of ns_geturl. Some are correct and contain the contents of the URL, some have HTML for the "Not found" response (even though the URL there) Jim ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 23:29:21 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Organization: Merit Software, Inc. Subject: Solid DB driver and character encodings Comments: cc: solid-users@luna.nl MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit We're using Solid with the AOLServer web server on Linux. We have run into some character set issues, for example, if an omleut o is entered in a browser, then the field is displayed later, it appears as a vertical bar. We changed AOL's solid.c driver to disable translation when connecting to the database (on advice from Solid tech support) with: rc = SQLSetConnectOption(hdbc, SQL_TRANSLATE_OPTION, SQL_SOLID_XLATOPT_NOCNV); if (!RC_SUCCESSFUL(rc)) { return NS_ERROR; } and the problem went away. 1. Has anyone else had these issues? We still don't understand how the database server or client-side libraries determine which character encoding to use. 2. The makefile for the AOL Solid driver seems bogus. There is no Linux section, and the makefile doesn't load the Solid libraries, so how could it possibly work? Is the solid.c source correct and up-to-date even though the makefile doesn't appear to be? Thanks, Jim ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:13:24 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Doug McKee Subject: Re: Files left in /tmp on Linux in 2.3b2 In-Reply-To: <34F21798.4CA@meritnet.com> (message from Jim Wilcoxson on Mon, 23 Feb 1998 19:43:04 -0500) >>>>> "Jim" == Jim Wilcoxson writes: Jim> We have written a TCL script that tortures AOL server by Jim> detaching a bunch of threads that loop calling ns_geturl. Jim> I'll post the script to the list when we understand what the Jim> issues are - right now there are enough things that appear Jim> broken that we are confused... Jim> One easy problem we've noticed is that files are left in /tmp Jim> named tmpf21458aaa etc. We have 550 there now. They contain Jim> the results of ns_geturl. Some are correct and contain the Jim> contents of the URL, some have HTML for the "Not found" Jim> response (even though the URL there) This bug has been logged and has #529. doug ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 16:36:44 GMT Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: David Wynne Subject: database services MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi, Has anyone had any experience or details on how to access the Full Text database ( called mytextdb by default I think ) directly via SQL/TCL. How are the tables/columns organised ? Dave Wynne Senior Computer Technician School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences Liverpool John Moores University Byrom Street Liverpool L3 3AF ENGLAND Tel: +44 (0)151-231-2108 Fax: +44 (0)151-207-4594 ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 14:26:21 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jim Wilcoxson Organization: Merit Software, Inc. Subject: SOLID character set MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit As an alternative for rebuilding the Solid driver to turn off character set translation, copy the solid.ini file to the ~nsadmin directory and add: [Client] CharacterSet=nocnv Works great, less filling. Jim ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 00:22:47 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Fred Leeflang Subject: Finding out the Database error, C API MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, I'm writing an authentication module that uses the database. The module sets up a global DB handle (global to the module) in the module init function and then points the authentication function to a function that I made, using Ns_SetRequestAuthorizeProc. In the new authentication function I use an Ns_Db0or1Row but apparently this one returns NULL (something is wrong with the query) I would like to find out what is the error, but the only reference to getting a db error is to use Ns_DbReturnError, which requires a 'conn' parameter, which I don't have in the authentication handler. IS there any other way to see what's the error message? Thanks, -Fred PS: I'm still not sure if I'm on this list, so if you reply, please also CC my own address. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 13:02:17 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jeff Huber Subject: Re: Finding out the Database error, C API MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Fred Leeflang wrote: > PS: I'm still not sure if I'm on this list, so if you reply, please also > CC my own address. Hi Fred, I am one of the AOLserver List Moderators and I thought I would let you know that I scanned the AOLserver list and you are not on the list. You can add youself to the list by going to http://www.aolserver.com/server/listserv.adp and filling out the form. -- -------------------------------------------------------- | Jeff Huber | mailto:jeff@alienbob.com | | AM.net Programmer | AOLserver Mailing List Moderator | | http://am.net/ | http://www.aolserver.com/ | -------------------------------------------------------- -=- Visit Me on the Web: http://alienbob.com/ -=- ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 13:08:10 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Jeff Huber Subject: Re: Finding out the Database error, C API MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Ops.. I didn't meen to send this to the list.. sorry for the spam.. Jeff Huber wrote: > > Fred Leeflang wrote: > > PS: I'm still not sure if I'm on this list, so if you reply, please also > > CC my own address. > > Hi Fred, > > I am one of the AOLserver List Moderators and I thought I would let you > know that I scanned the AOLserver list and you are not on the list. You > can add youself to the list by going to > http://www.aolserver.com/server/listserv.adp and filling out the form. > > -- > -------------------------------------------------------- > | Jeff Huber | mailto:jeff@alienbob.com | > | AM.net Programmer | AOLserver Mailing List Moderator | > | http://am.net/ | http://www.aolserver.com/ | > -------------------------------------------------------- > -=- Visit Me on the Web: http://alienbob.com/ -=- -- -------------------------------------------------------- | Jeff Huber | mailto:jeff@alienbob.com | | AM.net Programmer | AOLserver Mailing List Moderator | | http://am.net/ | http://www.aolserver.com/ | -------------------------------------------------------- -=- Visit Me on the Web: http://alienbob.com/ -=- ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 21:27:28 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Kirk Zurell Subject: Status of Postgres driver? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit What is the relative health of the postgres/95/sql driver? I looked through the archives on www.magnets.com (via altavista), but saw nothing convincingly supportive or critical. I read that it was unsupported. Is it workable (at least as much as postgresql is)? Do people use it with relative comfort? I have had some success with it--I can "Execute Arbitrary SQL" against it (AOLServer 2.2, PostgreSQL 6.2.1 I think, RH Linux 4.2) But I can't seem to use the other database module functions (get schema, create table, etc. These error out, or no tables appear for selection. I'm still wrapping my head around permissions and interaction, so hopefully it's a configuration matter. I still have the Win95 perspective of less-than-perfect software. On UNIX, unsupported software actually works, just not perfectly. On Windows, well, you know... Another question: when I'm shutting down my system, what is the proper way to kill the nsd process(es)? I know not to kill -9 them--I use SIGTERM (the default for kill, I think). Should I kill the first one, all of them, or is there a more appropriate way? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. Kirk Zurell ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 08:28:12 -0700 Reply-To: Keith Paskett Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Keith Paskett Subject: Re: Status of Postgres driver MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/plain; charset=us-ascii I am currently using PostgreSQL 6.2.1 with AOLserver 2.2 and 2.3b2 on Solaris 2.5, 2.51, and 2.6. I had to make a couple of patches to AOLserver's postgres driver in order to get everything working. Attached are two chunks of code from the postgres driver with additions commented. I have reported these problems but haven't heard back from the developers. They could be peculiar to my configuration. ---------------- The first fix makes clicking on the row number in a search results table bring up the update form. There are comments before and after the additions. ------- Ns_PgExec(Ns_DbHandle *handle, char *sql) { static char *asfuncname = "Ns_PgExec"; NsPgConn *nsConn; Ns_DString dsSql; Ns_Set *row; int i; int status = NS_ERROR; if (handle == NULL || handle->connection == NULL || sql == NULL) { if (handle == NULL) { Ns_Log(Error, "%s: handle parameter NULL.", asfuncname); } if (handle->connection == NULL) { Ns_Log(Error, "%s: connection NULL.", asfuncname); } if (sql == NULL) { Ns_Log(Error, "%s: sql parameter NULL.", asfuncname); } goto done; } nsConn = handle->connection; /*Additions by Scott Cannon Jr. (SDL/USU) May 2, 1997:*/ /*This corrects the problem of quoting oid numbers when requesting a specific row*/ /*In our version of PostGreSQL, the quoting of oid's is ambiguous*/ { char *p; p = strstr(sql, " oid = '"); if (p) { p += 7; *p = ' '; /*overwrite first apostrophe with space*/ for (p++; *p && *p != '\''; p++) /*skip to end or next ' */ ; if (*p == '\'') *p = ' '; /*overwrite second apostrophe with space*/ } } /*End Additions*/ ------- The next fix makes postgres return dates in ISO format which is what the AOLserver tcl code expects. Without this, dates in the update forms are messed up. ----- Ns_PgOpenDb(Ns_DbHandle *handle) { static char *asfuncname = "Ns_PgOpenDb"; NsPgConn *nsConn; PGconn *pgConn; char *host; char *port; char *db; int status = NS_OK; if (handle == NULL) { Ns_Log(Error, "%s: handle NULL.", asfuncname); status = NS_ERROR; goto done; } host = handle->datasource; port = strchr(handle->datasource, ':'); if (port == NULL || ((db = strchr(port + 1, ':')) == NULL)) { Ns_Log(Error, "Ns_PgOpenDb(%s): Malformed datasource: %s. Proper form is: (host:port:database).", handle->driver, handle->datasource); status = NS_ERROR; } else { *port++ = '\0'; *db++ = '\0'; Ns_Log(Notice, "Opening %s on %s, %s", db, host, port); pgConn = PQsetdb(host, port, NULL, NULL, db); *--db = ':'; *--port = ':'; if (PQstatus(pgConn) == CONNECTION_OK) { Ns_Log(Notice, "Ns_PgOpenDb(%s): Openned connection to %s.", handle->driver, handle->datasource); nsConn = ns_malloc(sizeof(NsPgConn)); nsConn->cNum = pgCNum++; nsConn->conn = pgConn; nsConn->res = NULL; nsConn->nCols = nsConn->nTuples = nsConn->curTuple = 0; handle->connection = nsConn; status = NS_OK; /* Addition made by Keith Paskett (SDL/USU) 17 Feb 1998*/ /* This makes Postgres dates work with update forms in AOLserver */ Ns_PgExec(handle, "set datestyle to 'ISO'"); /* End Addition */ } else { Ns_Log(Error, "Ns_PgOpenDb(%s): Could not connect to %s: %s", handle->driver, handle->datasource, PQerrorMessage(pgConn)); PQfinish(pgConn); status = NS_ERROR; } } done: return (status); } ------ Keith Paskett keith.paskett@SDL.USU.EDU Space Dynamics Laboratory PGP encrypted mail preferred 1695 North Research Parkway 435-797-4195 Logan, Utah 84341 http://cal.sdl.usu.edu/~paskett ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 12:19:06 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "Kriston J. Rehberg" Subject: Re: Status of Postgres driver? In-Reply-To: <34F62490.F9E6C460@sentex.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, When you use the "get schema", "create table" and other functions from the /NS/Admin screens, you're using a feature we call "ExtendedTableInfo". It's true that the "ExtendedTableInfo" support in recent versions of the Postgres driver is broken. I have personally used Postgres with 2.11, 2.2.x and recent betas of 2.3. However, this is not a big deal, since you can still do all normal queries. Read on. I have heard that one of new betas of AOLserver 2.3 should have this feature working again (sorry, I can't tell you which one, because I don't have that information). However, you can still do all the "ns_db" queries you like even under the versions of AOLserver with this feature "broken". Here's why: Just to give you some background, the "ExtendedTableInfo" feature is a group of tables that AOLserver uses to keep track of the tables and the types of data allowed into the columns of each of the tables. This is called "metadata" in DB parlance and unless you use this metadata in your programs (which in all likelyhood, you don't), you don't use this feature anyway. All the important parts of the Postgres driver work fine -- the queries, updates, and this includes just about every DML and DDL command possible. About the only difference you will notice is largely cosmetic. You can't browse tables using the /NS/Admin interface. If you're used to database programming, it isn't that big of a deal. I've been using Postgres and AOLserver for a while and have never actually used the features provided by the ExtendedTableInfo feature. There are some other database manipulation commands in AOLserver's Tcl API that might use ExtendedTableInfo, but I don't use them (and can't really say how this problem affects you if you do use them). Enjoy, Kris Kirk Zurell writes: >What is the relative health of the postgres/95/sql driver? I looked >through the archives on www.magnets.com (via altavista), but saw nothing >convincingly supportive or critical. > >I read that it was unsupported. Is it workable (at least as much as >postgresql is)? Do people use it with relative comfort? > >I have had some success with it--I can "Execute Arbitrary SQL" against >it (AOLServer 2.2, PostgreSQL 6.2.1 I think, RH Linux 4.2) But I can't >seem to use the other database module functions (get schema, create >table, etc. These error out, or no tables appear for selection. I'm >still wrapping my head around permissions and interaction, so hopefully >it's a configuration matter. > >I still have the Win95 perspective of less-than-perfect software. On >UNIX, unsupported software actually works, just not perfectly. On >Windows, well, you know... > >Another question: when I'm shutting down my system, what is the proper >way to kill the nsd process(es)? I know not to kill -9 them--I use >SIGTERM (the default for kill, I think). Should I kill the first one, >all of them, or is there a more appropriate way? > >Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. > >Kirk Zurell -- Kriston J. Rehberg Systems Development http://kriston.net/ America Online, Inc. Vienna, Virginia USA endeavor to persevere ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 15:24:45 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: "F. Aly" Subject: Strange Tcl Error MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 A Tcl proc that has been running for a while under version "2.0" is suddenly bombing as follows: -------------------------------------------------------------------------= -- -------------------- [27/Feb/1998:11:42:52 -0500][27750.11032] Error: Tcl script failed: [27/Feb/1998:11:42:52 -0500][27750.11032] Notice: 386 bytes of raw data t= o follow: no value given for parameter "ignore" to "Calc_Savings_HDS" while executing "Calc_Savings_HDS [list $Capacity $UCapacity $Pressure $UPressure $SG 1.5= 0.01 $Unsat]" invoked from within "set ot [Calc_Savings_HDS [list $Capacity $UCapacity $Pressure $UPressure= $SG 1.5 0.01 $Unsat]]..." (procedure "Calc_Savings_HDC" line 125) invoked from within "Calc_Savings_HDC nsc1 {}" -------------------------------------------------------------------------= -- --------------------- the proc itself is as follows: -------------------------------------------------------------------------= -- --------------------- ns_register_proc GET /CALCSAVINGS/HDC Calc_Savings_HDC ns_register_proc POST /CALCSAVINGS/HDC Calc_Savings_HDC #--------------------------- proc Calc_Savings_HDC {conn ignore} { #--------------------------- # global tcl_precision set tcl_precision 17 set auto_noexec anything # set ind [llength $ignore] if {$ind =3D=3D 0} { DO SOME STUFF HERE} DO MORE STUFF HERE } -------------------------------------------------------------------------= -- ------------------------------ What could be the reason behind this error? All help/ideas will be appreciated. Regards......Aly ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 17:42:49 -0800 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Fred Leeflang Subject: [Fwd: DB authentication] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------F110A5F6CD08D412BB334056" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------F110A5F6CD08D412BB334056 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, I forwarded this message that I sent to Doug earlier. Part of it (like having the source code) may not apply to you :) Apparently I've been added to the mailinglist now (thanks Jeff) so this should work now too. Fred Leeflang --------------F110A5F6CD08D412BB334056 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-ID: <34F752CA.E3C99C2B@dutchie.org> Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 15:56:58 -0800 From: Fred Leeflang X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.0.33 i686) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: doug@aol.net, Michael Amster Subject: DB authentication Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Doug, I'm sorry for bothering you again. I am still not on the aolserver mailinglist, I got an email from one of the moderators about that, referring me to a webpage, but the webpage that he referred me to gave me a server error (I knew that already, that's why I've been trying to send email to listserv's:) I replied to his email asking him to simply add me manually instead but he hasn't replied to that yet. I hope you don't have a prob with me asking you instead :) As mentioned before, I'm coding this DB driven authetication handler. It looks pretty much like this: init() -> use Ns_SetRequestAuthorizeProc to point to proper authentication function -> search for name of first pool using Ns_DbPoolList() -> create db handle with Ns_DbPoolGetHandle ***** authentication function() -> -> do query using handle created in init function for module. The algorythm seems simple enough to me, and yesterday I had it to work nicely. However, I ran into a problem at some point and had to restart the server. Now for some reason the pools = Ns_DbPoolList() -> Ns_DbPoolGetHandle(pool) seems to go wrong. The documentation says that Ns_DbGetPoolHandle will log in the server log when it finds an error but I can't find anything usefull. I log the pools = ... using an Ns_Log, after that I see only a lot of [27/Feb/1998:15:19:43 -0800][13519.13526][development] Debug: Ns_IllGetRow(defau lt:mynewdb, 1): Fetching row. Which I think is caused by the query: [27/Feb/1998:15:19:43 -0800][13519.13526][development] Notice: SQL(default:mynew db): select table_name from tables where table_kind <> 'i' and table_kind <> 's ' And the next thing I see in the log is that Ns_DbPoolGetHandle() fails. Question: Should I create the handle in the init function or should I do that every time when I enter the authehtication function? It appears to me that Ns_DbPoolGetHandle() doesn't open a DB connection each time but merely grabs one of the already located connections from a 'pool' but I'm not sure if this isn't a timeconsuming action that I want to avoid doing for each page. Thanks for your time, Fred Leeflang PS: I have CC'ed my employer, Mike. If he's okay with it I can also send you the code since I realise that this may be rather hard to read without the code. --------------F110A5F6CD08D412BB334056-- ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 13:10:21 -0500 Reply-To: Web Development with AOLserver Sender: Web Development with AOLserver From: Doug McKee Subject: Re: Finding out the Database error, C API In-Reply-To: <34F52657.6A686B71@dutchie.org> (message from Fred Leeflang on Thu, 26 Feb 1998 00:22:47 -0800) >>>>> "Fred" == Fred Leeflang writes: Fred> Hi, I'm writing an authentication module that uses the Fred> database. The module sets up a global DB handle (global to Fred> the module) in the module init function and then points the Fred> authentication function to a function that I made, using Fred> Ns_SetRequestAuthorizeProc. Fred> In the new authentication function I use an Ns_Db0or1Row but Fred> apparently this one returns NULL (something is wrong with Fred> the query) I would like to find out what is the error, but Fred> the only reference to getting a db error is to use Fred> Ns_DbReturnError, which requires a 'conn' parameter, which I Fred> don't have in the authentication handler. IS there any other Fred> way to see what's the error message? The error message is sitting in the db handle: typedef struct Ns_DbHandle { char *driver; char *datasource; char *user; char *password; void *connection; char *poolname; int connected; int verbose; Ns_Set *row; char cExceptionCode[6]; <------------------ Ns_DString dsExceptionMsg; <------------------ void *context; void *statement; int fetchingRows; } Ns_DbHandle;