Originally, all information about our machines was stored in a spreadsheet with one sheet for the hardware of the machines and one for the software. By now, I've sucessfully moved the software part to an elog logbook and am now looking at transferring the hardware part as well.

As both lists are machine-name based, one of the options would be to merge both lists, as this would place all machine-related info into one logbook. The downside of this is that I get so many columns in list view that the result is quite unwieldy. Hence, I would like to hide some columns - ideally creating a "hardware view" and a "software view".

From the documentation, the only option I could find that seemed suitable was "List conditions". Unfortunately, I do not quite understand from the manual how this is supposed to work, so I'm quite possibly doing something wrong. I've tried this:

; General settings
List conditions = 1

; Attributes
Attributes = Type, Created, StatusA, StatusB, Archived

; Options & Tooltips
Options Type = Type1{10}, Type2{11}

; Conditionals
{10}List display = Edit, Type, Created, Status
{11}List display = Edit, Type, Created, StatusA, StatusB, Archived

but no matter how I set "Type", it does not seem to have any effect on the List display. One thing I don't understand for example is how does elog decide in List view which entry sets the condition? If all entries are set to the same value (in this example e.g. "Type1")? The first entry? Or am I missing something altogether?

Also, if there are alternative ways how I could accomplish my goal, I'd also be most grateful for suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Thomas

 By now, I'm one step further. List conditions = 1 does have some effect in some cases - the following works:

Options Type = Type1{10}, Type2{11}
Options StatusA = Status-A-red, Status-A-orange, Status-A
{10}Style StatusA Status-A-red = background-color:red
{11}Style StatusA Status-A-red = background-color:green

This seems to get evaluated "top-down", i.e. the value of "Type" in the first row in the list sets the handling of StatusA and the background-color, the second row for the third and so on. Unfortunately, this really only depends on the order of the rows on the screen - if I sort the list differently, I get a different result.

I am also quite certain that List conditions = 1 has no effect whatsover on List display - which is what I was hoping for.

Hence, I'd like to repeat my question: Is there any way to hide columns in List view (short of editing the conf file...) - and if so, how?

Regards,

Thomas

; General settings
List conditions = 1

; Attributes
Attributes = Type, Created, StatusA, StatusB, Archived

; Options & Tooltips
Options Type = Type1{10}, Type2{11}

; Conditionals
{10}List display = Edit, Type, Created, Status
{11}List display = Edit, Type, Created, StatusA, StatusB, Archived

 Indeed you got something wrong. The conditional attributes are meant for the input form, so you can turn some attributes on and off or choose different options for an attribute depending on the value of another attribute.

The only way I see how you can achieve what you want is to define two separate logbooks, but serve them from the same directory (via the "Data dir" option). Both logbooks should share the same attribute definition, but use different "List display" options.

Thanks for the response! BTW: I did get a notification - but thanks for the "personal heads-up"!

 I see. In that case, could you maybe please give a quick explanation what "List conditions" is supposed to do? In conjunction with your statement above I'm now thoroughly confused as to what it should/could be used for...

 Ah, that's an idea - I'll look into that. Thanks a mil for the suggestion!

Regards,

Thomas

 I take it you mean the "Subdir" option (the manual mentions "Data dir" as obsolete)? I tried it with that and it works like a charm - gives me now two logbooks, i.e. two tabs with the same data and two different views - which is precisely what we need. Thanks!

Regards,

Thomas

We've been having toruble with uploads not working and I notice that every time someone uploads to our elog the same error message appears in /var/log/syslog:

Cannot restore original GID/UID.

How can I fix thsi error? Or, perhaps more importantly, could it cause elog to "lock up" (note, it doesn't crash)?

I'm runing elog on Ubuntu kernel version 2.6.24-server.

 Probably something is wrong with the account under which you run elog. Normally (at least if you install elog from the RPM) you have an account "elog" and group "elog" under which you run elogd. You compile and install elogd under root (so that it can bind to port 80 for example), and then you put 

usr = elog

grp = elog

into the configuration file. So when you start elogd, it binds to the server port, then falls down to user "elog" and gives up root privileges. If the elog account for example does not exist, you get the above error message. The only problem I see there is if elog stays as root, it can do more harmful things in case it misbehaves.

elogd is crashing with a segv when I try to create a new logbook by clicking the "Create new logbook" button
with an existing logbook selected in the dropdown list as a template. I've attached my config file for
reference. As a specific example, I'm logged in as the admin user, viewing logbook "1248", which has no entries,
and I click "Config" -> "Change config file" -> "Create new logbook", Select "1248" from dropdown list, enter
"1250" for the new logbook name, and click "Create new logbook".

The server crashes, and my web browser has the following as the (incorrect) URL it's trying to load:
(Incorrect because the "/ATLAS" shouldn't be there.)

https://localhost:8080/ATLAS/1250/?cmd=Config

Nevertheless, the config file and logbook directory are properly modified for the new logbook, and on restarting
the server, everything is fine.

Oh, just noticed that if I manually enter the URL:

https://localhost:8080/ATLAS/1250/

or actually, any text in place of the "1250", it also crashes the elogd process. So, perhaps there are two bugs?

(1) Incorrect URL being given to the web client after logbook creation
(2) Requesting any incorrect URL of this form crashes elogd

> elogd is crashing with a segv when I try to create a new logbook by clicking the "Create new logbook" button
> with an existing logbook selected in the dropdown list as a template. I've attached my config file for
> reference. As a specific example, I'm logged in as the admin user, viewing logbook "1248", which has no entries,
> and I click "Config" -> "Change config file" -> "Create new logbook", Select "1248" from dropdown list, enter
> "1250" for the new logbook name, and click "Create new logbook".
> 
> The server crashes, and my web browser has the following as the (incorrect) URL it's trying to load:
> (Incorrect because the "/ATLAS" shouldn't be there.)
> 
> https://localhost:8080/ATLAS/1250/?cmd=Config
> 
> Nevertheless, the config file and logbook directory are properly modified for the new logbook, and on restarting
> the server, everything is fine.
> 
> Oh, just noticed that if I manually enter the URL:
> 
> https://localhost:8080/ATLAS/1250/
> 
> or actually, any text in place of the "1250", it also crashes the elogd process. So, perhaps there are two bugs?
> 
> (1) Incorrect URL being given to the web client after logbook creation
> (2) Requesting any incorrect URL of this form crashes elogd

This problems have been fixed in SVN revision 2135.

Hi

I am experiencing trouble with Elog crashing. I think it crashes during input operations (new entries are being added).

Are there any preferred methods to troubleshoot this ? Any log files I could look at ?

For now, I let "monit" supervise the process and restart it if it crashes. But I would like to get to the root cause of the problem.

Soren Poulsen

CERN

Dear Soren,

sorry for the trouble, but it's very hard to diagnose this remotely. This forum here runs fine for many months, so in principle Elog should be stable (at least the current version 2.7.5). If you have an older version, please upgrade. If you have a way to reproduce the problem reliably, you can send me your config file and explain step-by-step how you make Elog crash. Then I can try to reproduce it here. Otherwise the only chance I see is to run elog from inside the debugger, and once it crashes record the stack trace and send it to me. If you don't know how to use the gnu debugger, I'm sure you find someone at CERN who knows. 

Best regards,

   Stefan

Dear Stefan,

Thanks for your reply.

I started running elog in February and it never failed. Then it started failing regularly towards the end of September. There were no system changes until then, except the daily automatic Yum updates (SLC4). Then I upgraded to the latest version (tar ball of 2.7.5). Then yesterday it crashed again. I saw that it crashed around the time when a user was doing something - inputting new data. I can monitor when it crashes and correlate it with user activity. But it is not easy to reproduce since I don't know exactly what the user is typing.

It would be necessary to record the user input forms and then replay them against a known server state. But that is not so easy.

I will think about doing something else - maybe running inside a debugger as you suggest.

Soren

 Just run it inside gdb. When it crashes, you will see a segment violation and you will end up at the debugger prompt. Then do a "bt" to see the stack dump. From that I can guess where the problem happens.

Hi ,

i have a little problem with the guest access. There is no acces to the logbooks as a guest. Evereytime i see the loginbox after clicking the logbook.

[Informations]
Guest menu commands = List, Back, Find, Login, Help
Guest find menu commands = List, Find, Select, Login, Help
Password file = ./passwd
Self register = 1
Logfile = elogd.log
Logging level = 3
Login expiration = 24
Admin user = testuser

Theme = default
Preset Author = $long_name
Attributes = Author, Subject
Locked Attributes = Author
Required Attributes = Author, Subject
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date, Subtext

Thanks for help, Brassmann

[Informations]
Guest menu commands = List, Back, Find, Login, Help
Guest find menu commands = List, Find, Select, Login, Help
Password file = ./passwd
Self register = 1
Logfile = elogd.log
Logging level = 3
Login expiration = 24
Admin user = testuser

Theme = default
Preset Author = $long_name
Attributes = Author, Subject
Locked Attributes = Author
Required Attributes = Author, Subject
Page Title = ELOG - $subject
Reverse sort = 1
Quick filter = Date, Subtext

 I tried your configuration and it worked as expected. Maybe you have edited the wrong configuration file, not restarted the server, or have an old page in your browser cache.

Just wondering if there is still a maximum number of mail recipients?  I saw  a number of 112 floating around in old forum entries, and I need more, like currently 300.  When I try it, the elogd hangs, not much output to speak of, but won't reply to Apache on its port.  Any quick fix (like changing a def'd variable somewhere?)

 No quick fix, sorry. It is also limited by a fixed number of characters per line in the configuration file and many more. I will try to increase it, but it will take time. Can you maybe set-up a mailing list at your email server? This way you send only email to one destination and it gets distributed to many people.

Hi, thanks to everyone involved for giving us the elog.

A question:

Is it possible to submit entries to an elog on a remote machine by email?

Thanks, Thorsten

 Have a look at Contributions.

Hi, thanks for everyone involved for giving us the elog.

A question:

Is there an easy way (without intermediate save) to send screenshots (with irfan, snagit or hardcopy) as a new entry to an elog running on a remote machine?

Thanks, thorsten

 I use HoverSnap. This program generates a saved screenshot with one keystroke, so at least it saves you the manual save.