[pkg-firebird-general] [Flamerobin-devel] Issue with Firebird2.1 classic and flamerobin .9

[Damyan Ivanov]

-=| marius popa, Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 09:35:54PM +0300 |=-
> I have just installed firebird 2.1 and flamerobin on an debian
> experimental system and i wanted to try the classic version
> Here is the error i have when i try to connect to employee.fdb
> 
> SQL Message : -902
> Unsuccessful execution caused by a system error that precludes
> successful execution of subsequent statements
> 
> Engine Code    : 335544653
> Engine Message :
> cannot attach to password database

This is a caveat with classic server and not a bug in Flamerobin.

This is the recipe to reproduce it:
  * install Debian classic-server package
  * (before anything else) connect to any database using a direct path 
    to the database, not server:/path/to/db using any program linked 
    with libfbembed, for example the firebird-supplied tools (sql, 
    gfix etc)
    - this starts the lock manager as the currently running user 
      (let's name it 'X', which most probably is *not* 'firebird')
  * try to connect to any database either using the server:/path/to/db 
    connection string, or using an utility that is linked with 
    libfbclient (which preepends localhost: on raw connection 
    strings), for example flamerobin
    - you can't as that utility would connect via the fb_inet_server, 
      which runs as user 'firebird' by default and cannot open the 
      lock files created by the user 'X'.

To avoid this, either:

  * always use localhost: in front of any paths. this way the lock 
    files and the shared memory segment will be owned by the 
    'firebird' user.
  * make the fb_lock_manager be suid root. I don't recommend this 
    unless you do a proper security audit on the source code used by 
    fb_lock_mgr.

Perhaps I should add a note about this in README.Debian.

-- 
dam            JabberID: dam at jabber.minus273.org
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