The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Odd Bug of the Day

Okay, this is a wierd bug.

If you visit the page for April 3rd you'll see three entries (the final one added today in trying to track down this bug). Now, if you go to the first entry of that day, then click “Next” you'll actually skip over the second entry (which doesn't show up at all) to the third entry. And from there, clicking “Previous” will either take you to the first entry for that day (which is what happens on my test server) or it take you back to the third entry (which is what is happening on the live server). On the plus side, it's happening on both systems. On the minus side, it's exibiting different behavior.

I don't know what it is about that second entry (which is about the House Chillin' Party) that mod_blog doesn't like …

Um … sure … this is easier …

I truely don't understand how control panels make life any easier.

I truely don't.

We have a customer with a dedicated server running Fedora Core 2 with Blech. Okay, fine. The customer wants to install a PHP script. Of course. The script requires a PHP function mhash():

However, you need to verify that the required PHP MHASH extension is available; otherwise, you will not be able to generate the required fingerprint.

The required MHASH extension comes with PHP and requires no additional cost.

Most web hosting providers install this extension along with PHP; however, in some circumstances, you may have to enable it yourself or ask your web host to enable it for you.

Lies! All lies!

It may very well come by default with PHP 4.3.10 but we're not running PHP 4.3.10 on this system, we're running PHP 4.3.4 and while the configure command (presented by phpinfo() is over 20 lines long, it doesn't contain --with-mhash.

There does, however, exist RPMs I can install. The mhash-0.9.1-2.i386.rpm installed fine, but php-mhash-4.3.10-2.4.2.i386.rpm failed because it needs PHP 4.3.10 or higher and like I said, we're only running PHP 4.3.4.

And what the XXXX does version “4.3.10-2.4.2” even mean? It's like the Linux Kernel Version Numbering Mess, only worse.

It's even more incredible that RedHat failed to include this module with PHP; it has every other conceivable module configured.

Grrrrr.

I suppose we could upgrade to PHP 4.3.10, but would that break Blech?

Oh wait … just found out the latest version of Blech can support PHP 4.3.10, but we're not running the latest version of Blech, so we'll need to upgrade that …

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

So tell me, in what way do control panels make life easier?

XXXX, in what ways do RPMs (or any other pre-compiled form of installation) make life easier? It's not like ./configure ; make ; make install is all that difficult …

Obligatory Picture

[The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades]

Obligatory Contact Info

Obligatory Feeds

Obligatory Links

Obligatory Miscellaneous

You have my permission to link freely to any entry here. Go ahead, I won't bite. I promise.

The dates are the permanent links to that day's entries (or entry, if there is only one entry). The titles are the permanent links to that entry only. The format for the links are simple: Start with the base link for this site: https://boston.conman.org/, then add the date you are interested in, say 2000/08/01, so that would make the final URL:

https://boston.conman.org/2000/08/01

You can also specify the entire month by leaving off the day portion. You can even select an arbitrary portion of time.

You may also note subtle shading of the links and that's intentional: the “closer” the link is (relative to the page) the “brighter” it appears. It's an experiment in using color shading to denote the distance a link is from here. If you don't notice it, don't worry; it's not all that important.

It is assumed that every brand name, slogan, corporate name, symbol, design element, et cetera mentioned in these pages is a protected and/or trademarked entity, the sole property of its owner(s), and acknowledgement of this status is implied.

Copyright © 1999-2024 by Sean Conner. All Rights Reserved.