--socket-dir option is ignored

[nyavango]

Shortly telling, --socket-dir option has no effect. xpra start creates socket in default location, xpra attach seeks sockets in default location.

Steps to reproduce:

1. create ${HOME}/.testXpra directory to store sockets
2. run xpra --socket-dir=${HOME}/.testXpra start :19
3. expects: socket number 19 in ${HOME}/.testXpra directory
4. get: socket number 19 in ${HOME}/.xpra directory
5. get: ${HOME}/.testXpra directory is empty
6. run xpra --socket-dir=${HOME}/.testXpra
7. expects: empty list, because ${HOME}/.testExpra is empty
8. got: list contains single live session at :19

So, from practical perspective --socket-dir is ignored. But it is still correctly parsed. If I replace it with --socket-diir for example, I would get parse error.

version: 0.17.3
OS: Gentoo Linux, rolling release.

[Antoine Martin]

fix for xpra list - with just too many disadvantages

[Antoine Martin]

The problem comes from the changes for #963: we now allow multiple sockets to be created for a single server.

The problem with the socket being created in the "wrong" directory comes from the fact that the bind option defaults to a specific path (~/.xpra/) in the default config we ship.
And so when we try to create the sockets, this takes precedence over socket-dir.
This should be fixed in r12947 by switching to "auto" by default.
You can workaround this by:

• editing /etc/xpra/xpra.conf and setting bind to auto
• using --bind=$HOME/.testXpra on the command line
• using an absolute path for your socket on the command line, etc..

The second part (fixing "xpra list" to only search "socket-dir") is much harder to fix properly. The patch attached would only search socket-dir, but this is likely to cause more problems than it solves: it would make it impossible to list any sockets not found in "socket-dir" once this option is used. And that's bad, so I will probably just leave it as it is.

Please close if this works for you.

[nyavango]

I afraid socket-dir-only.patch is too forceful. DotExpra is seemed to be used not only for sockets, but for logs too.

I've tried to set bind option in /etc/xpra/xpra.conf file to auto, and it satisfies all practical needs. So the ticket itself not a bug, but explanation for how to use xpra features properly. There is no need to exclude .xpra sessions from listing explicitly. So all works, fine, it was just a misunderstanding after upgrading from 0.16.x version.

[Antoine Martin]

Milestone renamed

[mviereck]

I'm facing this bug again in xpra v1.0.3-r15051. Maybe I misunderstand something.
I checked the config files, bind ist set to auto. I also tried --bind=auto on command line, but the socket does not appear in the folder I specified with --socket-dir.
If I use --socket-dir along with --bind=/path/to/socketdir, the socket appears, but if I try to connect to it (with xpra client v0.17.6) I get this error:

2017-03-12 14:23:07,850 New unix-domain connection received on /x11docker/socket/f89aa1c31337-522
2017-03-12 14:23:07,864 Handshake complete; enabling connection
2017-03-12 14:23:08,070 Warning: xxhash python bindings not found
2017-03-12 14:23:08,071  no scrolling detection
2017-03-12 14:23:08,094 server error processing new connection from Protocol(unix-domain socket:/x11docker/socket/f89aa1c31337-522): No module named dbus
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/server/server_core.py", line 893, in _process_hello
    self.hello_oked(proto, packet, c, auth_caps)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/server/server_base.py", line 1115, in hello_oked
    self.default_speed, self.default_min_speed)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/server/source.py", line 357, in __init__
    self.dbus_server = dbus_exception_wrap(make_dbus_server, "setting up client dbus instance")
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/server/dbus/dbus_common.py", line 12, in dbus_exception_wrap
    v = fn()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/server/source.py", line 355, in make_dbus_server
    from xpra.server.dbus.dbus_source import DBUS_Source
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/server/dbus/dbus_source.py", line 7, in <module>
    from xpra.dbus.helper import dbus_to_native
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/xpra/dbus/helper.py", line 7, in <module>
    import dbus
ImportError: No module named dbus
2017-03-12 14:23:08,097 Disconnecting client /x11docker/socket/f89aa1c31337-522:
2017-03-12 14:23:08,097  server error (error accepting new connection)

I have set --no-notifications on both server and client. xpra server is within a docker container, xpra client is on host.

As newer xpra versions can handle multiple sockets, can't just be created one more in the directory specified by --socket-dir? That would preserve backwards compatibility.

[Antoine Martin]

That's a completely different bug (you don't have python dbus installed), which is fixed in 1.0.4

[mviereck]

ok, thanks, installing python-dbus fixes that error.

But the core point persists: in xpra 1.03 --socket-dir only works with setting --bind=/path/to/socketdir. Setting --bind=auto does not work, no socket is created in the specified path.

Older versions of xpra does not accept --bind=/path/to/socketdir. I get:

cannot start server: failed to setup sockets: TCP port must be specified as [HOST]:PORT 

I know, you don't like it people using older versions ;-). But as I provide a tool for everyone, I try to be compatible with every xpra version that may be installed. I can (and do) recommend to install from your repo, but don't want my tool to fail if there is an older version on other systems.
I can make a workaround, checking xpra version and using different commands to run xpra depending on its version number.

It would be more nice if xpra is backwards compatible with -- socket-dir if the config file contains bind = auto. That was the way I understood your comment above.

[Antoine Martin]

@mviereck: try r15287, it does what you want - I guess it can be argued that this fixes command line backwards compatibility so this may get applied at some point to the 1.0.x branch - but it will need further testing first, 2.0 is likely to be released before the next 1.0 update anyway so this should happen.

---

As for "not liking people using older versions": what people do is their own business, but:

• some distributions (Debian / Ubuntu in particular) ship outdated versions full of serious bugs (crashes or critical security issues) and I want no responsibility with the serious risks involved
• dealing with bug reports on those versions is usually a waste of time (fixed already)

[mviereck]

Thank you, I've tested with xpra v2.0-r15319, now --socket-dir works on its own again without using --bind.

[migration script]

this ticket has been moved to: ​https://github.com/Xpra-org/xpra/issues/1244