[Mailman-Users] Re: sys.exit(0) causes no cgi output

[Richard Barrett]

At 18:22 17/02/2003, Karl Berry wrote:
>Red Hat 7.2 (i686), apache 1.3.26, python 2.2.2, mailman 2.1.1 (also
>happened with 2.1).
>
>After applying the htdig patches, we found that calls to
>http://.../mailman/htdig/... got an internal server error (HTTP 500).
>(An example full url:
>http://tug.org/mailman/htdig/pdftex/2002-July/002843.html.)

I take it that you did not apply patch #668685 per the instructions in 
$build/INSTALL.htdig-mm and as also noted in the comments on the 
sourceforge web page for patch #444884

<quote from patch #444884 (htdig-2.1.1-0.1.patch.gz) installed file 
$build/INSTALL.htdig-mm starting at line 23 as installed by patch>
Prerequisites
============

Prior to installing this patch you should also have installed the patch
that provides enhanced indexing of Mailman archives see:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=444879&group_id=103&atid=300103

If you are using vanilla MM 2.1 final or 2.1.1 you will also need to apply:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=661138&group_id=103&atid=300103

which is a precursor to patch #444879.

If you are using vanilla MM 2.1 final or 2.1.1 you will also need to apply:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=668685&group_id=103&atid=300103

</quote>

I sometimes wonder why I bother to write these notes as so few people can 
be bothered to read them!

>It turned out that nothing was being written to stdout, that is, in
>driver.py we have the following block:
>
>         try:
>             try:
>                 sys.stderr = logger
>                 sys.stdout = tempstdout
>                 main()
>                 sys.__stdout__.write(tempstdout.getvalue())
>             finally:
>                 sys.stderr = sys.__stderr__
>                 sys.stdout = sys.__stdout__
>         except SystemExit:
>             # This is a valid way for the function to exit.
>             pass
>
>The sys.__stdout__.write(tempstdout.getvalue()) statement was not
>getting executed, so apache had no headers to send back, thus the ISE.
>Instead, the main() call was jumping to the finally block and then the
>except SystemExit block.
>
>Why?  Because of the sys.exit(0) at the end of htdig.py.  If that is
>changed to `return', it works.  So, apparently sys.exit(0) is throwing a
>SystemExit exception, which I guess is logical enough.
>
>Since not every sys.exit(0) can be changed to return (e.g., the one in
>error_quit in htdig.py), for now I changed driver.py so that the `except
>SystemExit' also does the write:
>         except SystemExit:
>             # This is a valid way for the function to exit.
>             sys.__stdout__.write(tempstdout.getvalue())
>             pass
>
>(Well, actually, I changed cgi-wrapper.c to invoke xdriver and changed
>it in a new script xdriver.py to avoid possibly disturbing all the other
>mailman cgi scripts.)
>
>Of course, there are sys.exit's scattered everywhere throughout all the
>*.py files, not just in htdig.py.  So I feel like I must be missing
>something.  How can it be working for every other script (at least I
>guess it is), and no one else is seeing the problem?  Or does driver.py
>really need to be changed?
>
>Any info appreciated, this has been a frustrating morning.
>
>Thanks,
>karl at tug.org