"authz_module_name" should be more verbosely documented

[sebastian@…]

I just completed a two hour hunt for a bug which, in the end, wasn't one. The problem was that I could anonymously access my SVN repository but Trac's source browser gave me just an uninformative error message: "Error: Forbidden". (see screenshot; "anonymous" has all the necessary rights, btw. Especially "BROWSER_VIEW")

It turned out that I forgot to set the configuration option authz_module_name which caused the problem.

It tried to browse a repository called "ixml" and had the following "authz" file.

[/]
manski=rw

[ixml:/]
*=r
manski=rw

...

So I have two suggestions:

• Enhance the error output displayed to the user (see screenshot) or at least log the error. The error message of the PermissionError is completely lost.
• Add some more documentation to authz_module_name stating at least the "module" means "repository name" (like specified ​here) and that this value can't be automatically detected. A IMHO better way would be to fixe/implement ticket #4997.

BTW: I'm using Python 2.6.

[sebastian@…]

Screenshot of the error message

[Christian Boos]

PatchWelcome.

[Christian Boos]

I re-read the documentation for authz_module_name which states:

The module prefix used in the authz_file for the default repository. If left empty, the global section is used.

Well, that's clear enough for me. Please reopen if you have a better phrasing.

As for the missing permission error message, I couldn't reproduce it.