IIS: config.php gets cleared/reset after sometime when upgrading

[ev0lister]

Config file gets cleared after some time.

Steps to reproduce

1. Update from 7.0.2 to 7.0.3

Expected behaviour

config.php should not be initialized after some time

Actual behaviour

After upgrade from 7.0.2 to 7.0.3 everything works as usual, but then some time later (not yet known when and why) the config.php gets overwritten by OC.

config.php initialized with the following content:

<?php
$CONFIG = array (
'instanceid' => 'xxxxxxxxx',
);

You can replace this one with an backup of the config file and everything works again, however after sometime same issue occurs.

Server configuration

Operating system: Windows 2012 R2

Web server: IIS 8

Database: MySQL

PHP version: PHP 5.5

ownCloud version: 7.0.3 (stable)

Updated from an older ownCloud or fresh install: Updated

List of activated apps: Only default

The content of config/config.php:

<?php
$CONFIG = array (
  'instanceid' => '51bXXXX0ec9',
  'passwordsalt' => '*** Removed for security reasons',
  'trusted_domains' => 
  array (
    0 => 'XXX',
    1 => 'XXX',
  ),
  'overwritewebroot' => '/oc',
  'datadirectory' => 'XXXX',
  'dbtype' => 'mysql',
  'version' => '7.0.3.4',
  'dbname' => 'owncloud',
  'dbhost' => '127.0.0.1',
  'dbtableprefix' => 'oc_',
  'dbuser' => 'owncloud',
  'dbpassword' => '*** Removed for security reasons',
  'installed' => true,
  'forcessl' => true,
  'mail_from_address' => 'noreply',
  'mail_smtpmode' => 'php',
  'mail_domain' => 'XXXX',
  'loglevel' => '2',
  'theme' => '',
  'maintenance' => false,
);

Are you using external storage, if yes which one: No

Are you using encryption: No

Client configuration

Browser: Firefox, current version

Operating system: Windows 8

Logs

Web server error log

No log

ownCloud log (data/owncloud.log)

No log entries around time of overwriting config.php

Browser log

Not relevant

Please note: config.php gets at least touched every minute or so.. seems not to be OK.

[LukasReschke]

Most likely #11843 (comment)

@karlitschek @craigpg @PVince81 FYI

[ev0lister]

Btw. write protecting the config.php is not a workaround as then OC is yelling for r/w permissions.

[LukasReschke]

@ev0lister As a workaround (read: far away from being a patch) I would recommend you to apply the changes from #12139 (click on "Files" then you see the changes)

After applying that patch you should be able again to make the config read-only. But obviously this is still a valid bug being caused by the implementation of PHP on Windows so please keep this issue open.
(Or even better: Migrate to a linux-based setup since this is what most developers and users use)

[ev0lister]

@LukasReschke Thanks! Have implemented that workaround and looks fine so far. Will report in case I face any issues. As a side note: I'm aware that Linux is the preferred system for OC, however so far it was always possible to use it on Windows, so would definitively be nice to be able to keep that running :-)

[LukasReschke]

@ev0lister Can you remember if you was logged-in with an admin account when this happened? - Or was this an account without admin privileges?

[ev0lister]

I'm using an admin account - must be this one as there is only one other user on this instance.

[matthiasjost]

I can reproduce the same behaviour ony my Windows 2012 server machine. The file gets overwritten. It happens always after a request. Which seems to make sense as cron jobs are configured to be handled during the ajax request.

[LukasReschke]

@jnfrmarks Any chance to test 7.0.2 -> 7.0.3 on IIS and then clicking around a little bit? - Would be interesting if we can reproduce this internally.

[jnfrmarks]

@LukasReschke @ev0lister

What steps were taken for the upgrade? If I remember correctly, there is a manual step that needs to happen around the DB when upgrading windows.

[LukasReschke]

What steps were taken for the upgrade? If I remember correctly, there is a manual step that needs to happen around the DB when upgrading windows.

The manual steps are only required for MSSQL, IIS is as usual. - Replace old files and click "update".

[matthiasjost]

Would this happen on apache (windows) too? Or is it related to IIS? I think it depends on the PHP windows implementation. Is this true?

[LukasReschke]

I'm not quite sure. Single-threaded PHP running Apache might work. - Though once you use Apache there is really no reason not to run it on a *nix system directly.

[matthiasjost]

It seems to be difficult anyway to have a good apache setup on windows. As xampp should not be used in production environment. And The apache haus windows binaries are also just a bunch of binaries that need to be configured in every detail. I think I will use IIS to proceed.

[ev0lister]

Hey guys, what about the current release of OC (7.0.4). In changelog I can see that config.php can be read-only. Would that fix / workaround this issue? I can test that later but maybe you already have the answer..

[LukasReschke]

Hey guys, what about the current release of OC (7.0.4). In changelog I can see that config.php can be read-only. Would that fix / workaround this issue? I can test that later but maybe you already have the answer..

Yes. You can try setting 'config_is_read_only' => true, in your config.php and make the file read-only for the IIS process. - That should work. (though some features such as modifying settings via GUI are not possible anymore)

[ev0lister]

Have upgraded to 7.0.4 without setting the config_is_read_only parameter and have no issues now on IIS.

[LukasReschke]

@ev0lister That's the fun with this bug. It happens not in every case - much fun to debug ;-)

[matthiasjost]

Is this bug still open in 7.0.4? (https://owncloud.org/changelog/)

[LukasReschke]

7.0.4 might still be affected. We did some changes to ownCloud 8 in regard to config handlig so you might try the beta and report back.

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