[Mailman-Users] Bug Message

[Ken Manheimer]

On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Alvin Gunkel wrote:

> 	I have installed mailman and Python 1.5.1 per instructions.  When
> trying to access the subscribe program I get the following:
> 
> We're sorry, we hit a bug!
> [...]
> Traceback (innermost last):
>   File "/u1/mailman/scripts/driver", line 97, in run_main
>     main()
>   File "../Mailman/Cgi/subscribe.py", line 30, in main
>     path = os.environ['PATH_INFO']
>   File "/usr/local/lib/python1.5/UserDict.py", line 12, in __getitem__
>     def __getitem__(self, key): return self.data[key]
> KeyError: PATH_INFO
> 
> Environment variables:
> [...]

The environment variables listed, in fact, lack a PATH_INFO variable,
which mailman depends upon.  (What HTTP server are you using?)  There is
what may be an alternative: 

>  SCRIPT_NAME 
>                            /mailman/subscribe 

which we could use as an alternative in our scripts for PATH_INFO, if it
really is a substitute.  Funny thing is, the variable either does not
serve as i expect, or the value indicates that you entered an incorrect
path, somewhere.  

My question for you is, how you are trying to get at the subscribe
script? It is not supposed to be visited directly - you should be coming
to it from a listinfo page for the list to which you're trying to
subscribe.  E.g., when subscribing to mailman-users at python.org, one
visits:

	http://www.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users

and enters the subscription info, then they hit the 'Subscribe' button. 
A that point the 'subscribe' script is visited - and then PATH_INFO
should be set. If not, we'll look for a fallback setting - but i expect
i would have heard of this problem before if the PATH_INFO is at all
commonly left out...

(In any case we may want to fix mailman so the script handle the
situation better, directing the user to the right place instead of
faulting.) 

Ken Manheimer		  klm at python.org	    703 620-8990 x268
	    (orporation for National Research |nitiatives

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