From: Jeff King Date: Fri, 09 May 2014 15:59:45 GMT Subject: Re: t5539 fails on ubuntu for v2.0.0-rc2 Message-ID: <20140509155945.GG18197@sigill.intra.peff.net> In-Reply-To: <536B1DF4.5080109@fabiodalfonso.com> On Thu, May 08, 2014 at 08:02:28AM +0200, Fabio D'Alfonso wrote: > this is the error in httpd error.log > > [Wed May 07 20:44:10 2014] [alert] getpwuid: couldn't determine user name > from uid 4294967295, you probably need to modify the User directive > [Wed May 07 20:44:10 2014] [notice] Apache/2.2.17 (Ubuntu) configured -- > resuming normal operations > [Wed May 07 20:44:10 2014] [alert] getpwuid: couldn't determine user name > from uid 4294967295, you probably need to modify the User directive > [Wed May 07 20:44:10 2014] [alert] getpwuid: couldn't determine user name > from uid 4294967295, you probably need to modify the User directive > [Wed May 07 20:44:10 2014] [alert] getpwuid: couldn't determine user name > from uid 4294967295, you probably need to modify the User directive > [Wed May 07 20:44:10 2014] [alert] getpwuid: couldn't determine user name > from uid 4294967295, you probably need to modify the User directive > [Wed May 07 20:44:11 2014] [alert] Child 12037 returned a Fatal error... > Apache is exiting! Hmm. Some googling turned up a similar case: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-server-73/apache-won%27t-start-because-490312/ It looks like apache is trying to getpwuid (probably as part of doing a setuid on its children), failing, and then crashing. I suspect that this is related to you running as root, as a non-root apache would not want to (nor be able to) call setuid. Does running the tests as a non-root user fix it? If so, I think we have a few options in git: 1. Add a User directive to our httpd.conf. I doubt this is a good idea to do unconditionally, as a non-root apache would probably be unhappy with it. 2. Add a User directive when we detect that the tests are running as root. This might work, but I'm a bit iffy, as we do not know the appropriate username for the system (e.g., "nobody" versus "www-data" versus something else). 3. Just disable the http tests when run as root. I think I'd favor 3. But I'd like to be sure that being root is the problem. -Peff