Problems applying the regular expressions fix from the CVS build

[jaigupta]

I found a problem about the breaklines, when I searched in forum I found the link Regular expressions for breaklines (regex) - Kayako Community Forums

It was exactly what I was searching for. Luckily Ryan Lederman solved the issue in bug tracker.

From here the problem starts.

I replaced the two files from CVS
ocale/en-us/emailparser.php
modules/parser/functions_parsercore.php

After this cron started the file locked issue and new tickets stopped creating.

The support person (Raghav Arora) assigned to my support ticket BNG-400887 has not proved to be helpful yet. It seems that he understands kayako support systems less then I do, to me it seems that he is not even a technical guy.

He has spend last few days replacing old/new files with on my server. Each time after replacing a file he says that support system is working (god knows if he really tests or not), When I test the problem had never been solved. Now again he replases a file and the story continues round and round.

Finally I have restored my server with previous files and everything seems to be working fine except regex bug #418
Kayako Bug Tracker - Viewing Issue #418 - Regular expressions for breaklines (regex)

Now what do I do? I found no formal way of reporting this issue.

[Jamie Edwards]

Hi Jai,

I'll discuss this with Raghav and get back to you.

[Jamie Edwards]

Hi Jai,

There was an issue (that we are yet to determine) with one of the most recent versions of the mail parser code, which Raghav was trying to fix, but the problems continued to occur. Raghav is very technically oriented and does indeed know what he is doing. However, I have identified with him that his replies did not convey enough detail as to how he was attempting to resolve your issues and why. I'll make sure this does not happen in futur.

Your situation here is a good example of why it is not a good idea to simply overwrite files that look like they're fixed without doing an entire build update; the fix affected the files you replaced, but the new files also had other fixes in them which created upgrade dependencies elsewhere.

Please wait until the 3.20.03 build is stable and tested; the file replacements you have made contain untested CVS code - you should only ever run CVS builds at your own risk entirely (this warning is giving to you when you try to download one).

Even more risky is replacing the odd file that contains a fix without the explicit guidance of a staff member (usually a developer). We are unable to rescue any problems that occur due to mixing up code versions and running unstable builds - please be aware of this for the future.

Your installation is now running as it was before, and you report it is running without problems. Please wait for 3.20.03 to turn stable and complete a full upgrade at that time.

Thank you, and sincere apologies for the inconvenience.

[jaigupta]

If you notice I mentioned exactly which files I had changed in my first post in my ticket on 19 Apr. I followed the name of files given in change log (that part is now deleted from change log, don't know why).

When a user test your (untested) code he should be taken seriously, after all he is actually finding bugs in your code and making it stable.

[Jamie Edwards]

Hi Jai,

Absolutely; we do appreciate community testing and do encourage it. What we don't encourage is testing on live installations; when things go wrong, we will not guarantee dedicated developer time to fix your problem within a short amount of time.

What we do encourage is offline testing of CVS code, and reporting of issues via the tracker. Things begin to pick up pace and converge to stability when we release 'beta' or 'release candidates'; until then, however, please do not expect to receive priority developer support in order to fix a problem caused by a partial upgrade to CVS code.

[jaigupta]

This faulty code was

PHP Code:

    // Strip script tags if the setting is enabled.
    if ($_SWIFT["settings"]["pr_stripscript"] == 1)
    {
        $emailcontent = stripScriptTags($emailcontent);
    } 


/modules/parser/functions_parsercore.php line 388

Basically the problem was that in change log it was mentioned that the files affected were two but actually he forgot about the third file functions_html.php which had the added function stripScriptTags.

[Ryan Lederman]

Hi,

Nobody forgot any files; the stripScriptTags() function was part of an entirely different bug fix (#188).

This is precisely why we do not recommend upgrading from CVS ever.

CVS is a developer repository where daily changes are placed. These changes are untested and not even guaranteed to work at all.

It is recommended that you wait until a Release Candidate or Stable build is available before upgrading your installation.

[jaigupta]

Yes, this has been told before. Great! I will take care.

The cvs/svn version that we develop or that are developed in other software that we use are not untested, they have certain bugs but most of them they are minor bugs.

Anyway, different companies have different standard and different work plans, I will take care next time.