Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad idea

Problems with the Windows version of XAMPP, questions, comments, and anything related.

Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad idea

Postby THenrich » 12. January 2015 07:50

Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad idea. At least they should work together.
I changed the port numbers for Apache in the httpd.conf & hhtps-ssl.conf files (known this years ago) and Apache couldn't start and error showed it tried to use 80 and 443. What?
Is it not reading those config files? Then I noticed the other Config button and the 'Service and Port Settings' and they had their own port numbers settings. Changed them. Apache still couldn't start but it didn't mention port 80 and 443 anymore. Just it stopped unexpectedly. Log files are empty. Windows event log has nothing about Apache. What the hell is going on?

After some mocking I found out the port numbers needed to match in the different config settings.

Sheesh. Why doesn't XAMPP's config setting change the other setting files as well? Also the error message should indicate clearly the port settings mismatch. Annoying.
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Re: Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad

Postby Altrea » 12. January 2015 16:30

Hi THenrich,

THenrich wrote:Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad idea.

XAMPP control panel does not have two sets of configs.
Apache has it's own config files. MySQL, PHP, etc have their own config files too.
And the XAMPP control panel has its own config file too.

THenrich wrote:I changed the port numbers for Apache in the httpd.conf & hhtps-ssl.conf files (known this years ago) and Apache couldn't start

okay

THenrich wrote:and error showed it tried to use 80 and 443. What?

Which error? The messages in the XAMPP control panel?
The control panel prechecks need to know the new ports too. Otherwise it cannot check if these ports are free.

THenrich wrote:Is it not reading those config files?

No, the control panel does not contain a comprehensive config file parser. But the control panel is open source, so if you want that functionality, simply implement it and share it with the community.

THenrich wrote:Then I noticed the other Config button and the 'Service and Port Settings' and they had their own port numbers settings. Changed them. Apache still couldn't start

Shurely not, these ports are just used for the prechecks which should help you debug common issues.

THenrich wrote:Sheesh. Why doesn't XAMPP's config setting change the other setting files as well?

Writing a bullet proof config file parser is not such an easy task. There are multiple ways and files where you can configure your ports and other configs.
The control panel was made from a normal board user and he was so kind to share it with everybody. If you don't like the control panel simply don't use it or add the needed functionality yourself.
There are no plans yet to add this functionality in the next times.

THenrich wrote:Also the error message should indicate clearly the port settings mismatch. Annoying.

Again, the config files don't get parsed, so the control panel does not have any clue which ports Apache tries to allocate.

best wishes,
Altrea
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Re: Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad

Postby THenrich » 12. January 2015 20:10

I am just going to reply here as one go:

- XAMPP's config setting needs to change the settings on the other files also. If the control panel lacks a parser or whatever to make this happen, at least put up a message for the user that they need to modify the other config files manually and tell them which lines to do it. A message box is simple enough. Just don't not do things silently and the user has to spend hours to figure why something is not working right.

- 80 and 443 errors are in the UI.

- I hate it when someone says XX is open source, if you want a functionality do it yourself. As if everyone is a developer, a good one, has time to add the functionality because they understand the platform, the programming language...etc. What's wrong with making a feature suggestion!? Consider it a user feedback. A bug report is a gift. Thank the user instead of complaining. (not saying this is a bug here).
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Re: Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad

Postby Nobbie » 12. January 2015 21:18

THenrich wrote:I am just going to reply here as one go:

- XAMPP's config setting needs to change the settings on the other files also. If the control panel lacks a parser or whatever to make this happen, at least put up a message for the user that they need to modify the other config files manually and tell them which lines to do it. A message box is simple enough. Just don't not do things silently and the user has to spend hours to figure why something is not working right.

- 80 and 443 errors are in the UI.

- I hate it when someone says XX is open source, if you want a functionality do it yourself. As if everyone is a developer, a good one, has time to add the functionality because they understand the platform, the programming language...etc. What's wrong with making a feature suggestion!? Consider it a user feedback. A bug report is a gift. Thank the user instead of complaining. (not saying this is a bug here).


O my god....
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Re: Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad

Postby Altrea » 12. January 2015 21:47

THenrich wrote:XAMPP's config setting needs to change the settings on the other files also.

for Apache: Which config file should the control panel change: httpd.conf, httpd-ssl.conf, httpd-vhosts.conf, userdefined-configfile.conf, etc.?
The config could be in any file externally included in the httpd.conf. It is impossible to say where it should be added or changed without a comprehensive parser.
I for example create a new config file for manual changes to leave the original config files as original as possible so i can move the configuration easily to a new XAMPP version if wanted. Changing the ports on a fixed config is not flexible enough for advanced users.

THenrich wrote:If the control panel lacks a parser or whatever to make this happen, at least put up a message for the user that they need to modify the other config files manually and tell them which lines to do it.

There is already a message in the control panel. Let me quote it to your convenience:
Use this form to set service-specific and default port settings. You can
set the name and default ports the XAMPP Control Panel will check. Do not
include spaces or quotes in names. This does NOT change the ports that the
services and programs use. You still need to change those in the services'
configuration files.


At least in most cases we don't recommend changing the default ports. Because you are writing here about missing information and so on i assume you have already read this sticky thread [FGA] Apache won't start
This thread already contains the most common cases Apache will not start with several ways to solve it and even a section about how to change the default ports the right way. I don't know what to do more to inform you how to do it so you don't need hours to try several things yourself.

Normally configurating a Webserver is a task for a IT professional. Changing the default configuration needs a minimum amount of knowledge. XAMPP just tries to make it easy to provide a default configuration bundle for the most common webapplication components. If you vary from the default configuration on your own you should know what you do.

I hate it when someone says XX is open source, if you want a functionality do it yourself. As if everyone is a developer, a good one, has time to add the functionality because they understand the platform, the programming language...etc. What's wrong with making a feature suggestion!? Consider it a user feedback. A bug report is a gift. Thank the user instead of complaining. (not saying this is a bug here).

I don't care because It is as it is. The last XAMPP control panel build is from June 2013, the main developer of the control panel wasn't online here since December 2013. You can do feature requests as much as you want, but that will not change anything on the overall situation.
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Re: Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad

Postby Nobbie » 12. January 2015 22:39

THenrich wrote:What's wrong with making a feature suggestion!?


Oh nothing, welcome to the team! Bitnami will be very happy now having someone more who offers his knowledge and his time freely for nothing. Thanks in advance for your assistance!
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Re: Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad

Postby THenrich » 13. January 2015 00:38

- I have to change the default port 80. On a Windows system most developers use IIS. Apache will need to be on a different port and I won't stop IIS every time I use LAMP.
- I don't know anything about XAMPP's developer not being online or stopped working on it. I don't even know it's just one developer. What I do know is that XAMPP as a package is getting updated.
- Do you really need a full blown parser to change something in a text file. There are ready to use text parser libraries any developer can use.
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Re: Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad

Postby Altrea » 13. January 2015 01:32

THenrich wrote:On a Windows system most developers use IIS.

Interesting. So why don't you use IIS and implement PHP to it?

THenrich wrote:I don't know anything about XAMPP's developer not being online or stopped working on it. I don't even know it's just one developer.

That's the reason i told you that.

THenrich wrote:What I do know is that XAMPP as a package is getting updated.

XAMPP is just a preconfigured bundle of single components. Apache is such a component, MySQL, and even the control panel is a single component.
If a single component will not get updated, it is very uncommon that the XAMPP development team will do that.

THenrich wrote:Do you really need a full blown parser to change something in a text file.

A parser which understands how config files in Apache config syntax are getting included is needed. Otherwise you will not know which configuration hets loaded and takes effect.

THenrich wrote:There are ready to use text parser libraries any developer can use.

Feel free to implement that feature if you think you can do it.
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Re: Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad

Postby shoulders » 18. January 2015 19:27

I have got this problem, that when i change the setting in the 'config' that it does not actually change the real port numbers. After reading this i noticed that it does say this in the description but i personally feel it is not logical.

- the first line should be in red and say, "Port numbers do not get changed here, only the ports that are tested"
- i personally would have the port numbers greyed out and should be read automatically from the appropriate files. I cant see this being a terribly difficult thing, i could probably do it in php which does not help much.
- make the port lookups automatic from the appropriate files and that when they are changed in this applet they are actually changed for real

hopefully at some point in the future this will get added but for now i will go to the correct config button, press it, and edit the appropriate ini file, and restart the services

thanks
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Re: Xampp Control Panel having two sets of configs is a bad

Postby Nobbie » 18. January 2015 20:26

shoulders wrote:hopefully at some point in the future this will get added but for now i will go to the correct config button, press it, and edit the appropriate ini file, and restart the services


You are highly welcome to do this job.

It is in fact a total overkill and you need a full parser for httpd config files to solve this "problem" (which is a problem only for people who do not read documentation). It is BY FAR not that easy as you might think.
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