phpBB Appliance - symbolic links causing functionality to not work

[jeremyrp]

*Note* - Updating ticket description as two different functions have been discovered to not work because of symbolic links

With the phpBB Appliance (turnkey-phpbb-2009.03-hardy-x86.iso), a DB restore using the functionality through the phpBB admin console does not work. When a backup is done and the file stored locally, the file is correctly put in /var/lib/phpbb3/store (symbolic link from default location for backup - /store from phpbb root of /usr/share/phpbb3/www). However, when going to the restore feature, it does not list any backups stored in /var/lib/phpbb3/store. If the symbolic link "store" is replaced with a directory and the backups copied to the folder (/usr/share/phpbb3/www/store), then the restore correctly lists the backup files and allows for a restore.

With the same version, there are two different "styles" directories. Within the phpbb root, the styles symbolic link points to /etc/phpbb3/styles, but there is also a /usr/share/phpbb3/www/styles that is not used.

[Alon Swartz (alonswartz)]

Confirmed restore is broken.
I'll update this bug report when I have more info.

Thanks for reporting this.

[Alon Swartz (alonswartz)]

This was a tough little cookie, as it has compounded issues/bugs.

First up, you found a bug in the Debian phpbb packaging, where /var/lib/phpbb3/store should be chown 770 instead of 730.
What this means is that the webserver user (www-data) can write to store, but can't list its contents, which is why the restore functionality seemed to be broken.

I'll submit the bug to Debian and update this bugreport.

The second issue (the tough cookie) is aufs - the stackable unification filesystem that is used when running in Live Mode.
For some reason phpbb3 refuses to list the contents of the 'store' folder, no matter the permissions. The weird thing is that if you move the folder, then move it back, the folder size changes, and phpbb3 will happily read the contents - this must be an aufs bug.

Workarounds:
- Installed
  # chmod 770 /var/lib/phpbb3/store

- Live
  # mv /var/lib/phpbb3/store /var/lib/phpbb3/store.bak
  # mv /var/lib/phpbb3/store.bak /var/lib/phpbb3/store
  # chmod 770 /var/lib/phpbb3/store

This fix will be included in all upcoming phpbb3 appliances.

[Alon Swartz (alonswartz)]

Regarding the styles directories:

The Debian phpbb3 package uses /usr/share/phpbb3/www/styles as its default styles directory.
It is a symlink which points to /etc/phpbb3/styles, compliant with the FHS.

Installing custom styles should be done in /etc/phpbb3/styles, and already includes symlinks to the styles included in the phpbb3 package.

[Alon Swartz (alonswartz)]

Workaround commited to development version.
This fix will be included in all upcoming phpbb3 appliances.

[Alon Swartz (alonswartz)]

typo in one of my previous comments: "should be chown 770 instead of 730."
chown -> chmod

(Why doesn't LP support comment editing...?)

[Alon Swartz (alonswartz)]

submitted to debian:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=525690