system wide options result in inconsistent user experience

[Michael R. Crusoe]

Binary package hint: davfs2

If the sysadmin set system wide options in /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf and she allows for unprivileged users to mount WebDAV resources then they will experience inconsistent results.

Example:

sysadmin@host:~$ echo "davfs2 davfs2/suid_file boolean true" | sudo debconf-set-selections --
sysadmin@host:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure davfs2
sysadmin@host:~$ sudo sh -c 'echo "http://webdav.cyberteams.com:8080/ /mnt davfs noauto,user 0 0" > /etc/fstab'

user@host:~$ mount /mnt
Please enter the username to authenticate with server
http://webdav.cyberteams.com:8080 or hit enter for none.
  Username: guest
Please enter the password to authenticate user guest with server
http://webdav.cyberteams.com:8080 or hit enter for none.
  Password: guest
user@host:~$ ls /mnt
aaa
[snip]
user@host:~$ umount /mnt
/sbin/umount.davfs: waiting while mount.davfs (pid 13147) synchronizes the cache .
user@host:~$ mount /mnt
/sbin/mount.davfs:/home/user/.davfs2/davfs2.conf:24: unknown option
user@host:~$ ls /mnt
user@host:~$

This happens because /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf is copied to ~/.davfs/ if ~/.davfs2 doesn't exist when mount.davfs2 is called.
Due to LP: 459998 Ubuntu needs to include a system option in /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf

Fix: Warn instead of exiting when system options are in the users configuration and vice-versa

[Michael R. Crusoe (misterc)]

New behavior:

user@host:~$ mount /mnt
/sbin/mount.davfs:/home/user/.davfs2/davfs2.conf:24: system option in user configuration file
user@host:~$ ls /mnt
aaa
[snip]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package davfs2 - 1.4.6-1ubuntu3

---------------
davfs2 (1.4.6-1ubuntu3) natty; urgency=low

  * Warn on misplaced configuration options, don't exit (LP: #746700)
  * Add kernoops to ignore_home to allow mounts under / in Ubuntu.
    (LP: #459998)
  * Add distccd to ignore_home to allow mount under / in Debian & Ubuntu.
 -- <email address hidden> (Michael R. Crusoe) Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:20:43 +0200

[Michael R. Crusoe (misterc)]

https://savannah.nongnu.org/support/?107641

[Michael R. Crusoe (misterc)]

Fix released upstream: https://savannah.nongnu.org/support/?107641

[Michael R. Crusoe (misterc)]

Note that this is a different approach that fixed this and lp: #459998. It still needs packaging.