MissingSectionHeaderError: File contains no section headers

[ilias@…]

after editing the trac.ini manually (on a windows machine) and saving as utf-8, the error listed below occoured (taken from apache log).

Saving the file locally as ANSI, and copying to the server makes it work again, without visibility of the utf-8 stuff.

adding utf-8 stuff from the webadmin works without problem, and system runs fine again.

[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/usr/lib64/python2.5/site-packages/mod_python/apache.py", line 299, in HandlerDispatch\n result = object(req)
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/src/infra/trac/trac/web/modpython_frontend.py", line 120, in handler\n gateway.run(dispatch_request)
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/src/infra/trac/trac/web/wsgi.py", line 87, in run\n response = application(self.environ, self._start_response)
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/src/infra/trac/trac/web/main.py", line 376, in dispatch_request\n env = open_environment(env_path, use_cache=not run_once)
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/src/infra/trac/trac/env.py", line 558, in open_environment\n env = env_cache.setdefault(env_path, open_environment(env_path))
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/src/infra/trac/trac/env.py", line 562, in open_environment\n env = Environment(env_path)
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/src/infra/trac/trac/env.py", line 171, in __init__\n self.setup_config(load_defaults=create)
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/src/infra/trac/trac/env.py", line 327, in setup_config\n self.config = Configuration(os.path.join(self.path, 'conf', 'trac.ini'))
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/src/infra/trac/trac/config.py", line 46, in __init__\n self.parse_if_needed()
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/src/infra/trac/trac/config.py", line 212, in parse_if_needed\n self.parser.read(self.filename)
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/usr/lib64/python2.5/ConfigParser.py", line 267, in read\n self._read(fp, filename)
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: File "/usr/lib64/python2.5/ConfigParser.py", line 462, in _read\n raise MissingSectionHeaderError(fpname, lineno, line)
[Wed Jan 09 17:15:42 2008] [error] [client 74.6.25.206] PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend: MissingSectionHeaderError: File contains no section headers.\nfile: /var/www/vhosts/lazaridis.com/subdomains/intra/var/sxedio/conf/trac.ini, line: 1\n'\\xef\\xbb\\xbf# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-\\n' 

[Emmanuel Blot]

Replying to nkantrowitz:

Suspected trolling, +1 to delete.

That's a real issue, and it comes from Windows (once again):

The edited file contains an infamous "bom" UTF-8 ​marker.

Remove the 3 first bytes in your trac.ini or configure your editor not to add the BOM marker at the top of the file when you save UTF-8 encoded files.

BOM markers are used on Windows (mostly) so that (stupid) tools can detect a file is coded with UTF-8.

ps: Noah, do not delete this ticket it might be useful for other people.

[ilias@…]

Replying to eblot:

![…]

That's a real issue, and it comes from Windows (once again):

The edited file contains an infamous "bom" UTF-8 ​marker.

Remove the 3 first bytes in your trac.ini or configure your editor not to add the BOM marker at the top of the file when you save UTF-8 encoded files.

BOM markers are used on Windows (mostly) so that (stupid) tools can detect a file is coded with UTF-8.

![…]

BOM marker seem to be a ​Unicode Standard, independent of Windows.

Adding the sequence at the beginning of a utf-8 file seems to be standard-compliant, as there is no high-level protocoll which forbids the usage.

Thus, it looks that trac should tolerate the existence of the "EF BB BF" (utf-8 byte-order-mark) to detect UTF-8. It's not much effort anyway.

[Emmanuel Blot]

Replying to ilias@lazaridis.com:

Replying to eblot:

BOM marker seem to be a ​Unicode Standard, independent of Windows.

Not really independent: it's included in the Unicode Standard, but only used with Windows AFAICT. For example, a UTF-8 python file with a BOM marker is likely to fail to start on a Un*x box.

Anyway, it is known to cause issues and from Unicode Standard 5.0, section 3.10, “Unicode Encoding Schemes":
Its usage at the beginning of a UTF-8 data stream is neither required nor recommended by the Unicode Standard

It would be better if Trac could ignore this marker, but it does not seem to be a Trac issue but a standard Python library one. I don't think it is worth the trouble to provide a workaround for it in Trac.

[ilias@…]

Replying to eblot:

Replying to ilias@lazaridis.com:

Replying to eblot:

BOM marker seem to be a ​Unicode Standard, independent of Windows.

Not really independent: it's included in the Unicode Standard, but only used with Windows AFAICT. For example, a UTF-8 python file with a BOM marker is likely to fail to start on a Un*x box.

ok, but the case here is a trac.ini file

Anyway, it is known to cause issues and from Unicode Standard 5.0, section 3.10, “Unicode Encoding Schemes":
Its usage at the beginning of a UTF-8 data stream is neither required nor recommended by the Unicode Standard

reading standards is a desaster. The main two things are:

• The standard does not forbid the usage.
• Millions of editors add this marker by default.

It would be better if Trac could ignore this marker, but it does not seem to be a Trac issue but a standard Python library one. I don't think it is worth the trouble to provide a workaround for it in Trac.

I understand your thought.

On the other side, think about utf-8 users on windows (or which manage their remote unix box with a local windows machine). They will hit on a hidden error: Trac does not startup, and it needs log-inspection to get clarity. This can become very inconvenient.

anyway, it's your decision. Thanks for the clarifications.

[Noah Kantrowitz]

This is a moot discussion at this point. Trac uses the normal Python ini parser, so if you have an issue with it I suggest you open a bug with Python itself. I think its fair to say we have no interest in making our own ini parser to fix something like this.

[ilias@…]

Replying to nkantrowitz:

This is a moot discussion at this point. Trac uses the normal Python ini parser, so if you have an issue with it I suggest you open a bug with Python itself. I think its fair to say we have no interest in making our own ini parser to fix something like this.

Well, I think the trac user can rate this ('your' interest).

[anonymous]

Glad I found this ticket,

I just ran into this error after editing the trac.ini on a remote windows machine with microsoft notepad and no backup made from trac.ini :-)

Client: Vista Server: Server 2k3

I never had this error before because I always used scite or the local notepad on the server itself.

Here is an easy way to fix the ini again: Open Scite → Load the file → Mark all → Select File/Encoding (here you have beside others "UTF8 with BOM" and UTF8". Select "UTF8" and save the file.

[bestrok]

hi. friends I'm program Engineer in Korea and i've grammar problems to speak.

I had this case yesterday. I thought that is encoding problem too.

but i didn't edit 'trac.ini' … that's mistery… only edit the tickets Report query through Internet Browser.

Anyway it solved it by saving as ANSI. don't save as UTF-8.

i love man~ shoot! thanks.

[bestrok]

another solution is

remove all event_viewer's logs.

i don't know why this works.. >.<