Public bug reported:
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS
Release: 16.04
incron version 0.5.10-3
—————————————————————————
It seems that incrontab has some problems, especially with comments and
whitespace. Additionally, incrontab modifies edits.
In some cases, automatic modifications aren't a problem, even though it
would be far preferable not to do this:
• Remove blank lines.
• Change multiple spaces after the path to a single space.
• Change the order of masks, e.g. IN_NO_LOOP,IN_MODIFY to IN_MODIFY,IN_NO_LOOP.
But other cases are not so good.
• When using a tab for whitespace in a line, incron doesn't understand
it — but there is no error message.
• When adding a comment (i.e. a line beginning with a hash):
— If the comment is just a hash or has exactly one word after the has
line is removed.
— If the comment has more than one word, the first word is replaced with a
zero. Example:
# This is a comment.
is changed to
# 0 is a comment.
(It gets more complicated when tabs are involved.)
What incrontab should do instead:
• Do not automatically change the contents. Both whitespace and comments
are used to document the purpose entries, and are important to the long-
term maintenance of a running system.
• Accept whitespace (multiple spaces and tabs) between the path and the
mask set, and between the mask set and the command.
• If there is a syntax error in the edits, reject the edits with a
meaningful error message when saving incrontab, and give the option of
re-editing (in the same way that crontab does).
Finally, the documentation should mention the bugs (until they're fixed)
so that people understand why their incron is not working and how to fix
it.
Thank you
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: incron 0.5.10-3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-29.31~16.04.1-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.18
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: LXDE
Date: Mon Aug 6 08:47:54 2018
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-06-17 (414 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 16.04.2 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20170215)
ProcEnviron:
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
PATH=(custom, no user)
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: incron
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
modified.conffile..etc.incron.allow: [inaccessible: [Errno 13] Permission
denied: '/etc/incron.allow']
modified.conffile..etc.incron.deny: [inaccessible: [Errno 13] Permission
denied: '/etc/incron.deny']
** Affects: incron (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug xenial
** Summary changed:
- incrontab changes its contents under certain conditions
+ incrontab changes its contents, and fails to work, under certain conditions
** Summary changed:
- incrontab changes its contents, and fails to work, under certain conditions
+ incrontab changes its contents, and fails, under certain conditions
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1785573
Title:
incrontab changes its contents, and fails, under certain conditions
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