catfish 1.0.2 fails to update locatedb

[Charles Bos]

With catfish 1.0.2 when I tried to Update Search Index... I got the following message:

An error occurred while updating locatedb.

When I downgraded to catfish 1.0.1 the database updated successfully.

This is on Arch Linux 64 bit.

locate/updatedb is provided in Arch by mlocate which is at version 0.26

Here's the downstream bug report: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/40392

[ToZ (toz)]

The issue is line 465/466 of CatfishWindow.py. The addition of 'env={"LANG": "C"}' makes updatedb fail on Arch Linux. Reverting that addition, so that the line reads again (as in 1.0.1):

self.updatedb_process = pexpect.spawn('sudo updatedb')

...allows it work again.

Not exactly sure why this fails on Arch but works in Xubuntu 14.04.

[Sean Davis (bluesabre)]

Is there any additional output on the terminal when this failure occurs?

[ToZ (toz)]

Sorry Sean, must have missed the notification about your post.
To answer your question, there is no additional output on the terminal, even if I run "catfish -vv".

[Aambitny (aambitny)]

"Update search index" functonality does not work - exception is raised after password is given.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. click upper-right icon
2. choose 'Update search index' menu item (translated string)
3. click 'Unlock' on the dialog that appears
4. Enter your sudo password and click 'OK'
Actual Results:
Application hangs and it is not possible to close it gracefully.
Following exception occured:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/catfish/catfish_lib/SudoDialog.py", line 183, in on_ok_clicked
    if self.attempt_login():
  File "/usr/share/catfish/catfish_lib/SudoDialog.py", line 220, in attempt_login
    child = pexpect.spawn('sudo /bin/true', env={"LANG": "C"})
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.3/site-packages/pexpect/__init__.py", line 511, in __init__
    self._spawn(command, args)
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.3/site-packages/pexpect/__init__.py", line 616, in _spawn
    'executable: %s.' % self.command)
pexpect.ExceptionPexpect: The command was not found or was not executable: sudo.

Expected Results:
Search index is updated properly.

Yes, I have sudo installed - it is in /usr/bin and I can run it from bash.
app-admin/sudo-1.8.6_p7
dev-python/pexpect-3.3 (~amd64)

There is similar upstream bug noticed on Arch distro: https://bugs.launchpad.net/catfish-search/+bug/1320777

There is a suggestion that the problem is in "'env={"LANG": "C"}'" parameter that is passed to pexpect.spawn() call, not sure why it makes any difference.

[Paweł Stankowski (ak-ambi)]

I've discovered similar bug in Gentoo:
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=518618

When catfish is run from console, following exception is printed out:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/catfish/catfish_lib/SudoDialog.py", line 183, in on_ok_clicked
    if self.attempt_login():
  File "/usr/share/catfish/catfish_lib/SudoDialog.py", line 220, in attempt_login
    child = pexpect.spawn('sudo /bin/true', env={"LANG": "C"})
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.3/site-packages/pexpect/__init__.py", line 511, in __init__
    self._spawn(command, args)
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.3/site-packages/pexpect/__init__.py", line 616, in _spawn
    'executable: %s.' % self.command)
pexpect.ExceptionPexpect: The command was not found or was not executable: sudo.

[Sean Davis (bluesabre)]

I'm trying to get to the bottom of this bug. The purpose for this code is to run the command with the C locale (default) since we have to catch the password prompt. Without this, non-English environments will not work as expected and will time out. At the very least, I will catch this exception and run the old code, but this will again fail for non-English locales.

[Sean Davis (bluesabre)]

I've committed this change, which should make it work as it did previously. Please test and let me know.

https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~catfish-search/catfish-search/trunk/revision/279

[ToZ (toz)]

Sean,
This patch works on Arch Linux - english environment.
Thanks

[Jeroen Roovers (jer-gentoo)]

Fixed in 1.0.3 and later versions.

[Paweł Stankowski (ak-ambi)]

I think that the problem is that you replace the environment with this single value and not only LANG variable.

According to:
http://helpful.knobs-dials.com/index.php/Python_usage_notes/pty_and_pexpect

"you use the env parameter on spawn, it sends that instead of os.environ. The cleanest way to hand in a tailored environment is to make copy of os.environ and alter it for specific spawn(env=thatcopy) calls."

Maybe this the cause of problem. Why don't you try to copy user's env and just replace LANG variable instead?

I believe that your fix won't work on non-english env.