confusing error output , not sure it is a bug or not ...

[Guolin Cheng]

Hi, all,

  I got some confusing cfengine outputs, not sure it is a feature, or a bug.. 

  We have a cfagent.conf file like the following, trying to save all users's 
crontabs on all hosts in a centro server:

                ....
                # user1's crontab
                    $(master_cfconfigs)/crontabs/user1/crontab.$(host)
                                        dest=$(crontabDir)/user1
                                        mode=0600
                                        owner=root
                                        group=root
                                        backup=false
                                        server=$(policyhost)

                # user2's crontab
                    $(master_cfconfigs)/crontabs/user2/crontab.$(host)
                                        dest=$(crontabDir)/user2
                                        mode=0600
                                        owner=root
                                        group=root
                                        backup=false
                                        server=$(policyhost}

                ...

 The problem I encountered is, when the user1's crontab exists, cfengine runs 
just normally, but when the user2's crontab doesn't exist on client machine, 
cfengine will report problems:

         cfcleint>  cfagent -v -q | less
         ...
         Checking copy from 
cfmaster.alexa.com:/alexa/cfengine2/configs/crontabs/user1/crontab.cfclient to 
/var/spool/cron/user1
                Checking copy from 
cfmaster.alexa.com:/alexa/cfengine2/configs/crontabs/user2/crontab.cfclient to 
/var/spool/cron/user2
                cfengine:cfclient: Server returned error:  Host authentication 
failed. Did you forget the domain name or IP/DNS address registration (for ipv4 
o
                r ipv6)?
                cfengine:cfclient: Can't stat 
/alexa/cfengine2/configs/crontabs/user1/crontab.bkupsvr2 in copy
                ...

 We know the cfclient can talks with cfmaster without any problems, so the 
error output is really confusing -- It is not a host 
authorization/authentication problem, but a "missing file" issue. By the way, a 
simple debug on the cfmaster reveal the problem is a "file stat" of user2' 
crontab on cfclient failure since the file doesn't exist there.

        cfmaster> cfservd --debug 
        ...
                Received: [SYNCH 1077319608 STAT 
/alexa/cfengine2/configs/crontabs/user2/crontab.cfclient] on socket 5
                
AccessControl(/alexa/cfengine2/configs/crontabs/user2/crontab.cfclient)
                cfservd: Couldn't stat filename 
/alexa/cfengine2/configs/crontabs/user2/crontab.cfclient from host 
cfclient.alexa.com

                cfservd: lstatcfservd: Host authorization/authentication failed 
or access denied
                Transaction Send[t 114][Packed text]
                Attempting to send 122 bytes
                SendSocketStream, sent 122
         ...

Thanks.
--Guolin Cheng