#1551 Fatal Error and read-only config file

[marinecomm]

When I start Privoxy, I get the following error:

Fatal error: init_error_log():can't open logfile:'.+AA0-\privoxy.log+AA0-'

And, on top of that, the config.txt file opens as read-only and won't allow me to alter it. I am running the following:

Privoxy version 3.0.19
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
AVG Firewall
no other proxy

[Lee]

On 10/14/19, Hard Wired hard-wired@users.sourceforge.net wrote:

Sorry and thank you very much.

You're welcome :)

I was searching the docs with a query that
was too specific and missed that section. Taking the time to read the full
docs also help me along with other options I wanted. I do wish there was a
smoother install process for the Windows platform.

If you have any suggestions on how to make it better, feature requests go here:
https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/feature-requests/
or you can start a discussion on the developers or users list:
https://lists.privoxy.org/mailman/listinfo

Regards,
Lee

[support-requests:#1551] Fatal Error and read-only config file

Status: closed
Group: 3.0.21
Labels: startup
Created: Sat Mar 09, 2013 09:15 PM UTC by marinecomm
Last Updated: Sun Oct 13, 2019 10:43 PM UTC
Owner: nobody

When I start Privoxy, I get the following error:

Fatal error: init_error_log():can't open
logfile:'.+AA0-\privoxy.log+AA0-'

And, on top of that, the config.txt file opens as read-only and won't allow
me to alter it. I am running the following:

Privoxy version 3.0.19
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
AVG Firewall
no other proxy

---

[Ben Bucksch]

The original problem here was caused by wrong file endings in the config file.

If you see the error message:
Privoxy Error: Fatal Error: init_error_log(): can't open logfile: '\privoxy.log'
(without the +AA0- or similar) then you might be running into bug https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/bugs/927/
Please see there for the solutions.

[Lee]

On 2/3/22, Ben Bucksch wrote:

The original problem here was caused by wrong file endings in the config
file.

Would you please say exactly what "wrong file endings" characters are?

I tried Privoxy with both unix (LF or \n) and DOS (CR LF or \r\n) line
endings and both work for me.
Windows 10 + 64 bit cygwin:

$ unix2dos config.txt
unix2dos: converting file config.txt to DOS format...

$ file config.txt
config.txt: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators

$ head -2 config.txt

My Configuration File for Privoxy 3.0.33

$ head -2 config.txt | od -tcx1
0000000 # M y C o n f
23 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 4d 79 20 43 6f 6e 66
0000020 i g u r a t i o n F i l e f
69 67 75 72 61 74 69 6f 6e 20 46 69 6c 65 20 66
0000040 o r P r i v o x y 3 . 0 . 3
6f 72 20 50 72 69 76 6f 78 79 20 33 2e 30 2e 33
0000060 3 \r \n # \r \n
33 0d 0a 23 0d 0a
0000066

Restart Privoxy and I don't notice any problems. Logging still works:
2022-02-04 06:51:51.213 0000127c Info: Listening on port 8118 on IP
address 127.0.0.1
2022-02-04 06:52:02.659 00001760 Request: config.privoxy.org/show-status
2022-02-04 06:52:02.765 00001760 Crunch: CGI Call:
http://config.privoxy.org/show-status
2022-02-04 06:52:02.872 00001760 Request: config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet
2022-02-04 06:52:02.872 00001760 Crunch: CGI Call:
http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet

$ dos2unix config.txt
dos2unix: converting file config.txt to Unix format...

$ file config.txt
config.txt: ASCII text

$ head -2 config.txt

My Configuration File for Privoxy 3.0.33

$ head -2 config.txt | od -tcx1
0000000 # M y C o n f
23 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 4d 79 20 43 6f 6e 66
0000020 i g u r a t i o n F i l e f
69 67 75 72 61 74 69 6f 6e 20 46 69 6c 65 20 66
0000040 o r P r i v o x y 3 . 0 . 3
6f 72 20 50 72 69 76 6f 78 79 20 33 2e 30 2e 33
0000060 3 \n # \n
33 0a 23 0a
0000064

Restart Privoxy and logging still works:
2022-02-04 07:03:13.859 00001b94 Info: Listening on port 8118 on IP
address 127.0.0.1
2022-02-04 07:03:22.216 0000099c Request: config.privoxy.org/show-status
2022-02-04 07:03:22.223 0000099c Crunch: CGI Call:
http://config.privoxy.org/show-status
2022-02-04 07:03:22.272 0000099c Request: config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet
2022-02-04 07:03:22.273 0000099c Crunch: CGI Call:
http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet

If you see the error message:
Privoxy Error: Fatal Error: init_error_log(): can't open logfile:
'\privoxy.log'
(without the +AA0- or similar) then you might be running into bug
https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/bugs/927/
Please see there for the solutions.

The easiest solution probably being:
I like having the log file outside of the program files directory, so
my privoxy config.txt has
logdir C:\temp
logfile privoxy.log

Regards,
Lee