doc/bugs/aggregate_generates_long_filenames.mdwn



the [[plugins/aggregate]] plugin mashes the title of an aggregated post into a filename.  This results in long filenames.  I have hit a filesystem length limitation on several occasions.  Some (ab)uses of RSS, e.g., twitter,
generate long titles.  Especially once you throw escaping into the mix:
$ ikiwiki --setup testsetup --aggregate --refresh
failed to write ./test/lifestream/Hidden_Features_Of_Perl__44___PHP__44___Javascript__44___C__44___C++__44___C__35____44___Java__44___Ruby___46____46____46__._aggregated.ikiwiki-new: File name too long
aggregation failed with code 9216
$ echo $?
25

It would also appear this abrubtly terminates aggregate processing (if not ikiwiki itself).  Only after moving my test repo to /tmp to shorten the filename did I see newer RSS feeds (from a totally different source) picked up.
-- [[Jon]]

I have to wonder what filesystem you have there where 147 characters
is a long filename. Ikiwiki already uses POSIX::pathconf on the srcdir
to look up _PC_NAME_MAX
to see if the filename is too long, and shortens it, so it seems
that, in additional to having a rather antique long filename limit, your
system also doesn't properly expose it via pathconf. Not sure what
ikiwiki can do here. --[[Joey]]


This is an ext4 filesystem with default settings (which appears to mean
256 bytes for pathnames).  Despite the error saying file name, it's
definitely a path issue since moving my test repo to /tmpfrom
/home/jon/wd/mine/www hides the problem. I note the following comment
in aggregate.pm:


	# Make sure that the file name isn't too long. 
	# NB: This doesn't check for path length limits.


I don't fully grok the aggregate source yet, but I wouldn't rule out
a bug in the path length checking, personally.  I'm happy to try and
find it myself though :) -- [[Jon]]


Path length seems unlikely, since the max is 4096 there.
--[[Joey]]