MS_ERRORFILE does not accept relative path

[mapserver-bot]

Reporter: ben
Date: 2009/01/10 - 03:22
Trac URL: http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/ticket/2853
When using CONFIG to set the location for an error log, it is not possible to use a relative path :

Doesn't work:

CONFIG "MS_ERRORFILE" "mserr.log"

Works:

CONFIG "MS_ERRORFILE" "/Users/19022662/Sites/marketprices/mapserver/mserr.log"

This is being reported only because it is inconsistent with other file references in the Mapfile (and took me some time to realise this), which will accept a relative reference (relative to the mapfile).

This is not important (if you know it doesn't accept a relative reference), but vaguely annoying when developing / debugging across different platforms.

Suggestions :

'''Short term''' - Update documentation to make it clear that the reference must be an absolute reference.

'''Longer Term''' - from Daniel Morissette's list response (9 January 2009):

"look at the implications of supporting relative paths in all possible scenarios and see if this could safely be added. i.e. it may be possible to get predictable results with a relative path only when setting MS_ERRORFILE in the mapfile but not when setting it via an environment variable, we'll have to see."

cheers

Ben

[mapserver-bot]

Author: dmorissette
Date: 2009/01/21 - 20:10
Note that the docs have been updated in ticket #2854 to clarify the absolute path requirement.

[mapserver-bot]

Author: bj
Date: 2011/03/09 - 10:52
Ping, is there any progress to get this feature it in MapServer 6.0?

We find this feature really useful.

Any comment from a dev would be helpful gain momentum here.

Best

    bjoern

[mapserver-bot]

Author: dmorissette
Date: 2011/03/09 - 21:41
I have added this in SVN trunk 58fd421 (r11128) (will be in MS 6.0 beta1).

Note that relative values for MS_ERRORFILE are supported only when set through a CONFIG directive in a mapfile. Setting MS_ERRORFILE through an environment variable still requires an absolute value.

Keeping ticket open for docs update

[mapserver-bot]

Author: ejn
Date: 2011/03/22 - 08:38
When compiling with the flag (unsafe) MS_ENABLE_CGI_CL_DEBUG_ARGS then msSetErrorFile was still called with a single argument (no pszRelToPath). The attached patch (against MapServer/msautotest_DEPRECATED@8e5fc71 (r11298)) sets the pszRelToPath to ".", which seems like the "expected" behaviour in this case.

[mapserver-bot]

Author: dmorissette
Date: 2011/03/23 - 02:38
Good catch. Thanks. Fixed in 6a18a59 (r11305) (will be in 6.0.0-beta3).

Still pending docs update.

[mapserver-bot]

Author: dmorissette
Date: 2011/03/23 - 02:55
Committed doc updates for this to map.txt and debugging.txt in MapServer/MapServer-documentation@150f524 (r11306). Closing.

[mapserver-bot]

attachment http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/attachment/ticket/2853/ms-svn-patch_msSetErrorFile_relative.patch :

   Patch to set relative path "." in mapserv.c;msSetErrorFile