[ic] Makecat problem: undefined catalog

R. Steven Rainwater interchange-users@interchange.redhat.com
Thu May 30 15:50:01 2002


On Thu, 30 May 2002 20:25:40 +0100, Kevin Walsh wrote:
>> The permission thing sounds interesting. Why wouldn't interchange
>> be able to access stores created by makecat? How would I determine
>> if this is the problem and, more importantly, what permissions should
>> I set on which files to correct it?
>> 
>Look at the permissions on the following directories and set them
>so that the Interchange user has read/execute permission:
>
>    /var/lib/interchange/erin-cat
>    /var/lib/interchange
>
>I assume your /var and /var/lib directories are set correctly.
>
>Also check the permissions on the "products" directory (under "erin-cat")
>and the files in the products directory.  If you find problems there then
>check all of the files and directories under the erin-cat directory for
>permission problems.

Bingo! That was it. Thanks everyone for your patience and help!

And, one small gripe for the documentation writer if I may. Where 
things went wrong was at the point that makecat asks two questions 
about usernames/ownership. The first is the name of the Interchange 
owner (interch if you do the RPM install) and the second asks for 
"The user name the catalog will be owned by" with no further 
explanation. This second question is not even mentioned in the docs
I was using ("Red Hat Interchange 4.8: Getting Started Guide, 
Running Makecat"). 

I assumed this was supposed to be the name of the user who owned
all the other files on the virtual web site the catalog was for.
I guess I was thinking they'd need to own the files so they could
edit files, ftp changes, etc. But if one selects any username other
than "interch", the catalog will not work (at least not without
pestering people on the mailing list to find out what "undefined
catalog and the seemingly unrelated "MailOrderTo" errors mean).

How about adding a warning here that says something like "Warning:
use interch as the username unless you know what you're doing and
intend to manually set file permissions before restarting interchange!".

And adding a little something to the documenation to explain what
the question is for and why one might choose various user names 
would be handy as well.

-Steve


_____________________________________________________________________
R. Steven Rainwater * http://www.ncc.com/humans/srainwater/index.html
"As you struggle to save humanity be sure to avoid electrodes in
your path"  -- Robotron 2084