trac-admin will create but rejects user assign to mixed case permission groups (works in WebAdmin)

[py.hieroglyph@…]

How to Reproduce:

• both WebAdmin and trac-admin allow you to create groups named e.g. gPigs and gChickens
• WebAdmin allows you to assign users to such groups
• trac-admin <env> permission add <user> gChickens fails with the message Group names must be in lower case and actions in upper case

This is inconsistent between the two methods and against the documentation (e.g. TracPermissions#PermissionGroups). I will add excerpts of the discussion from the users list in the comments.

System Information:

Trac:	0.11.7
Python:	2.6.4 (r264:75708, Oct 26 2009, 08:23:19) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)]
setuptools:	0.6c11
psycopg2:	2.0.13
Genshi:	0.5.1
mod_wsgi:	3.0 (WSGIProcessGroup WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL})
Subversion:	1.6.6 (r40053)
jQuery:	1.2.6
OS	Windows Server 2008

Using the serach terms "trac-admin permission group" returned only 18 tickets of which only the following seemed relevant: #666, #873 and #2146, none of which are duplicates. Using "permission groups webadmin" returned 3 with none relevant.

[py.hieroglyph@…]

Added from users list:

From: trac-users@… On Behalf Of Remy Blank Sent: 26 April 2010 18:57

I can confirm this behavior on current trunk. Permissions must be all-uppercase and groups all-lowercase. The code checks for either .isupper() or .islower() to be true for all arguments to "permission add".

The admin panel only checks that neither users nor groups are all-uppercase. No other checks are done.

I guess the inconsistency counts as a bug, so you may want to open a ticket for that (make sure you search for duplicates first). I don't know which behavior is correct, though.

— Remy

[py.hieroglyph@…]

Added from users list:

From: trac-users@… On Behalf Of Hal
Sent: 28 April 2010 15:46

The "principle of least surprise" suggests the admin panel behavior is correct, and the bug is in trac-admin.

If the admin panel is changed, many existing installations will break (it's a restriction of rules). If trac-admin is changed, no existing installations break (it's a relaxation of rules).

—Hal

[Remy Blank]

The documentation is a bit ambiguous:

Use lowercase for group names, as uppercase is reserved for permissions.

Does this mean "use all-lowercase for group names", or "use at least some lowercase for group names"? trac-admin permission add enforces the former, and the admin panel the latter.

Personally, I'm in favor of the latter. What say ye?

[Christian Boos]

I'm fine with the latter as well.

Doc could be:

Use at least one lowercase character in group names, as all uppercase is reserved for permissions

[Mikael Relbe]

Replying to cboos:

Doc could be:

Use at least one lowercase character in group names, as all uppercase is reserved for permissions

I vote for that too.

[Remy Blank]

Fixed in [9593] (no change in the translations, as the same error message was used as the admin panel).

[Remy Blank]

And documentation updated in TracPermissions@71.