targetcli aborts with the error message "NameError: name 'readline' is not defined" when running in interactive shell mode

[Matt Coleman]

Reproduced with python3-configshell-fb 1.1.20-1 on fully-updated Ubuntu Server 18.04 by attempting to run targetcli via PHP using Symfony Process:

Test script (in a directory with Symfony 3.4.1 pulled in via Composer)
------------------------------------------------------------
<?php
include 'vendor/autoload.php';

$process = new \Symfony\Component\Process\Process('targetcli');
$process->setInput('ls');

$process->mustRun();

var_dump($process->getOutput());
------------------------------------------------------------

Actual output
------------------------------------------------------------
PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Symfony\Component\Process\Exception\ProcessFailedException: The command "targetcli" failed.

Exit Code: 1(General error)

Working directory: /home/matt/reproduce

Output:
================
targetcli shell version 2.1.fb43
Copyright 2011-2013 by Datera, Inc and others.
For help on commands, type 'help'.

Error Output:
================
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/configshell_fb/shell.py", line 893, in run_interactive
    old_completer = readline.get_completer()
NameError: name 'readline' is not defined

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/targetcli", line 121, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/bin/targetcli", line 111, in main
    shell.run_interactive()
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/configshell_fb/shell.py", line 899, in run_interactive
    readline.set_completer(old_completer)
NameError: name 'readline' is not defined
 in /home/matt/reproduce/vendor/symfony/ in /home/matt/reproduce/vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Component/Process/Process.php on line 239
------------------------------------------------------------

Expected output
------------------------------------------------------------
string(1324) "targetcli shell version 2.1.fb43
Copyright 2011-2013 by Datera, Inc and others.
For help on commands, type 'help'.

/> o- / ......................................................................................................................... [...]
  o- backstores .............................................................................................................. [...]
  | o- block .................................................................................................. [Storage Objects: 0]
  | o- fileio ................................................................................................. [Storage Objects: 0]
  | o- pscsi .................................................................................................. [Storage Objects: 0]
  | o- ramdisk ................................................................................................ [Storage Objects: 0]
  o- iscsi ............................................................................................................ [Targets: 0]
  o- loopback ......................................................................................................... [Targets: 0]
  o- vhost ............................................................................................................ [Targets: 0]
/> exit
"
------------------------------------------------------------

I assume the package version 1.1.20 correpsonds to the project's 1.1fb20 tag on GitHub.

This bug was fixed in this commit and released in 1.1fb23: https://github.com/open-iscsi/configshell-fb/commit/82f79eb2f967ecd820d531488d0b64d6015b1aaf

The latest tagged version is 1.1fb24.

[Matt Coleman (mcoleman)]

I filed a bug with Debian, as well. It turns out they've already got a package 1.1.24-1 package pending upload to universe. https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=901484#17

[Matt Coleman (mcoleman)]

Correcting my last comment: Debian's updated package version is 1.1.20-2 (up from 1.1.20-1), in which the fix has been backported from the upstream commit.

https://sources.debian.org/patches/python-configshell-fb/1.1.20-2/

[Matt Coleman (mcoleman)]

I see that Cosmic now includes Debian's fixed 1.1.20-2 package. Can it be updated for Bionic, as well?

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Fixed in 1.1.20-2 which means >= Ubuntu 19.04.