Re: [Phpwiki-talk] Please help!

[Dan F. <dfr...@cs...>]

I could not disagree more with the sentiment on the list. The user is 
absolutely right. Unless we take this painful experience and rage 
seriously, this project will remain user-unfriendly.

When offered a choice between installing out of the box in a dangerous 
way, or forcing them to answer a question before running, choose the 
latter. Always.

Dan

Joel Uckelman wrote:

>>I have discovered the problem with the help of someone on IRC.  My /tmp 
>>directory was deleted.
>>
>>I can't even describe the rage that I have at this news.  All my long 
>>hours of work were completely destroyed in one clean sweep.  I will 
>>never have it back, it is gone, and for no good reason.  I think I have 
>>never in my entire life heard of something as stupid as making /tmp the 
>>default data store for a program.  My disappointment in the phpwiki 
>>software is immeasurable.  I know now that because of todays experience 
>>I will never use phpwiki ever again.
>>
>>I'm just so angry, I have to go do something else now.
>>
>>-d
>>    
>>
>
>There *is* a good reason for having /tmp as the default location for the 
>wiki database: It's the only place where we can be sure that your web 
>server has write permission; without that as a default, it's impossible for 
>the wiki to run 'out of the box'.
>
>And, quoting from the INSTALL file, Configuration, section 1:
>
>"PhpWiki will create some DBA files in '/tmp'. They contain the pages
>of the live site, archived pages, and some additional information.
>
>If you don't want the DBA files to live in '/tmp' you must make sure
>the web server can read/write to your chosen location.  It's probably
>a bad idea to leave it in '/tmp', so change it in 'config/config.ini'.
>
>WARNING: On many systems, files in '/tmp' are subject to periodic
>         removal. We very strongly advise you to move the files to
>         another directory."
>
>What's quoted here is very near the top of the install instructions; it's 
>not buried someplace obscure. We've prominently displayed a warning that 
>covers exactly what happened to you, along with an explanation of how to 
>avoid it.
>
>To sum up: I'm sorry that you lost your work, but I think that your 
>disappointment in PhpWiki is misdirected.
>
>  
>