Forum OpenACS Q&A: invalid command name "throttle"

Posted by Ben Koot on 01/26/06 10:22 PM

As part of my documentation of installing oacs 5.2.2, here's the latest crash message,
____________________________________________________________

There was a server error processing your request. We apologize.

Take me back where I was (before the error)

invalid command name "throttle"
while executing
"$proc $why"

____________________________________________________________

Does anybody have any idea what this means? and how to get things going again. This now happend twice. Last time I simply dumped the install, and started from scratch. Unfortunately I forget to note which module I was trying to install that caused this shit. Whatever way you look at it 5.2.2 in this state is a bit like Russian roulette. See also my other posting.

Thanks
Ben

P.s If anybody has time to help get things running, that would be a great help. Mail me for acces code to my virtual server. I hope this can still be restored, as I have already lost a whole week trying to get things working. I realy need the latest packages, as I am demoing my services at a travel trade fair in Berlin shortly. Going back to 5.1. is no option, as I don't fancy upgrading later, and running into similar conflicts. It would be great if there was a way to get the new accounting packages functional asap.

3: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 1)

Posted by Gustaf Neumann on 01/26/06 11:13 PM

the message comes from the filter proc of the xotcl request monitor. it looks to me as if you have the xotcl request monitor installed, but not xotcl and/or libthread. the xotcl request monitor is not part of 5.2.2, so its not a problem of oacs 5.2.2

2: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 1)

Posted by Janine Ohmer on 01/26/06 11:14 PM

I am wondering how the package repository is being populated.

I happen to be working on project-manager at the moment, so I know that the latest version in the oacs-5-2 branch is 2.71a3. The one in the Repository is 3.1d21. That sounds suspiciously like the version from HEAD, though I haven't checked. Further, I have a checkout of the oacs-5-2 branch and I tried searching it for the word "throttle" - none found. So whatever you are getting from the Repository it's not from that branch.

Ben, what I recommend you do is do a clean 5.2.2 install, then do a CVS checkout on the oacs-5-2 tag into another location and copy the packages you want to install into your packages directory. Then use the APM to install from local sources. This is what I have done and my installs have been almost error free (a couple of small Oracle bugs which won't trouble you).

This is not an ideal solution, because people are still free to check code in on the oacs-5-2 branch, and so the state of the packages you check out is not only unknown but unrepeatable unless you note the exact time you checked them out, but at least they do seem to work, and this is the best solution I've found in the current state of affairs.

Once upon a time the "final" tag for a release included all packages, and I think there was a lot of value in doing it that way.

4: Re: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 3)

Posted by Ben Koot on 01/27/06 12:34 AM

Thank's Gustav,

The trouble is when you start installing packages there's no reference to the order, nor the consequences of the action. Now you mention it, I did try to get XO wiki up and running, so it looks like that's the culprit right now. Unfortunatly XO wiki depends on a filestorage version that's not available in the current oacs release, so it does seem to be related.

I think Janine has identified the basic problem, so I feel this should be taken up to the next level!!

Although it's not a 5.2.2 issue, it might make sense to create a step by step approach, so newbies can't scew up installation , simply because they see a functionality they fancy, withouth having the basics on board to get things working from scratch. The pre-install display does not show any problems ahead so it look safe to proceed with installation

I noticed for example that by installing blogger on a clean system, it won't work,but after a few other packages, ther's no problem. Can't we create a step by step introduction?

5: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 1)

Posted by Dave Bauer on 01/27/06 01:47 AM

Ben

The APM always installs all required packages when I use it. I think if you are having these problems we need a more step by step explanation, with the actual error messages you receive, rather then a statement of "crash" which does not help us debug.

I will look at the repository generation. The code was not designed to do everything that is being expected of it.

6: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 1)

Posted by Dave Bauer on 01/27/06 03:12 AM

Janine,

Tagging the packages means they work and are tested and are ready for release. So tagging just to make them appear in the repository might just cause additional problems.

I fixed the repository builder, and now the correct packages appear for 5.2, mainly core packages.

I'll try to get the packages that we know are working ok tagged.

7: Re: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 2)

Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 01/27/06 08:23 AM

Janine, Ben,

our take when developing is to be careful in *tagging*. A package will get tagged if it prove to work *alone* on a certain branch.

This is why none of contacts, project-manager, invoices, tasks, acs-mail-lite (with correct attachement sending) aso. are tagged for release by us.

On the other hand we put the code into the CVS so *OTHERS* can play around with it, see how it works and hopefully clean the packages up to a degree that they meet the criteria mentioned above. Or, at the bare minimum, write a ticket so someone could resolve it :).

So, now that the repository is fixed and the tarball is generated out of the repository, we should be fine. All is required now is for someone to walk through the packages we now that are working and give them a maturity level of 1-3 along with tagging them openacs-x-x-compat.

8: Re: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 5)

Posted by Ben Koot on 01/27/06 09:08 AM

Dave here's the step by step process until the latest error message. https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message%5fid=366859

I hope this helps

Thanks
Ben

9: Re: Re: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 4)

Posted by Gustaf Neumann on 01/27/06 10:29 AM

i don't understand the file-storage issue. it is true that xowiki requires file-store 5.1.0, but this is intended to mean 5.1.0 or newer. oacs 5.2 comes with file-storage 5.2.0d8. I see on my system in the xowiki apm/version-dependencies the following.

Requires service file-storage, version 5.1.0 (remove)

    * Provided by File Storage, version 5.2.0d8
    * Provided by File Storage, version 5.2.0d4

so i am wondering what's wrong. i can certainly easily change the dependency to file-storage 5.2.0d8 (or whatever) but then the people using e.g. dotlrn 2.1.* will be unhappy.

10: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 1)

Posted by Janine Ohmer on 01/27/06 08:09 PM

The problem with this way of doing things is that it IMHO makes things unnecessarily complicated.

Someone like Ben, who knows what packages he wants to install, can't get at them unless he checks them out from CVS, on a tag he's not likely to know. So he's stuck.

Someone who wants to try out the toolkit is going to walk away thinking the core is all there is, since there are no clues to tell him that anything else is availble. If he doesn't get it in the tarball, and doesn't see it in the Repository, it's not going to exist for him.

It's a nice idea to say that we're only going to tag packages that are tested, but since no-one is doing any testing that effectively hides those packages from anyone who is not a developer.

I think it would be better to tag everything when tagging a release, and then make those packges available in the Repository with maturity levels clearly visible. Maybe it should be called 'level of testing' instead, so that a level of zero would clearly indicate 'not tested at all'.

Just MHO...

11: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 1)

Posted by Ben Koot on 01/27/06 09:01 PM

Amen!

Janine you just described my perception 100%. This whole matter seems to be more a management issue than a developers issue. I volonteer to guinee pig any set up that's created to solve this communication issue.

Cheers

Ben

12: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 1)

Posted by Dave Bauer on 01/27/06 09:09 PM

Sorry, I don't see how offering broken code is a coode option.

There are many people with CVS commit who have the ability to test and tag packages. If you are using a package and it works, tag it. The instructions on how to release a package are http://www.openacs.org/doc/openacs-5-2/releasing-package.html

It's pretty easy. I will try to release stuff I know works, specifically packages on openacs.org. I am pretty sure there are broken packages and changing one broken procedure for another isn't going to make Ben's life any easier.

We need to change the process and make it work, the old process of trying to package up and tag a couple hundred packages was not any better, just different.

I will add updating the maturity flag in the release docs, it makes sense to check/update that when you change the version number.

I think we are getting better, we need this kind of feedback so we can improve OpenACS. Any help in tagging packages on the oacs-5-2 branch as opeancs-5-2-compat would be appreciated. I haven't had time to go through and increase the version numbers and mark those packages.

13: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 1)

Posted by Ben Koot on 01/27/06 11:00 PM

In order to create some logic in this discussion, I am documenting my business case. It'still in draft version in the weblog, but I anticipate to publish tomorrow.

Stay tuned...

14: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 1)

Posted by Gustaf Neumann on 01/27/06 11:35 PM

Ben, i think, i know what is going on. Can it be that you did NOT use the flag "-r oacs-5.2" when you checked out oacs from the CVS archive, so you got CVS HEAD? This would explain, why you got the request monitor with the throttle message AND why you could not install xowiki.

the xowiki definition says that it depends on file-storage 5.1.0
oacs 5.2.2 contains file-storage 5.2.0d8
CVS HEAD contains file-storage-5.1.0a17
apm version compare says that 5.1.0a17 is older than 5.1.0

CVS Head is not supposed to work.

15: Re: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 14)

Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 01/28/06 07:41 AM

Gustaf, you raise a good point. I thought we were supposed to merge HEAD with the latest release once a release has been out in the open but the release manager only does this for the core packages not for the other ones (which makes sense).

16: Re: Re: invalid command name "throttle" (response to 10)

Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 01/28/06 07:45 AM

Janine, I'd agree and say that we should control the packages both by tagging them once someone got it running in a certain environment and using the maturity level to prevent someone like Ben of running into problems. Maybe an warning sign stating "You are about to install untested code. This will most likely result in data loss and a destruction of your current website. You are expected to run into a lot of bugs and the level of frustration you will experience can be tremendous. Please rethink your choice of installing the following packages (list of packages with maturity level 0). Otherwise proceed at your own risk and please report any problems you encounter to https://openacs.org/bugs"; will do.