Re: [Taler] documentation corrections and taler-exchange-secmod-* configuration

[Christian Grothoff]

On 12/29/23 16:00, Slack Coder wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've noticed some small issues while integrating the Taler Exchange up 
> on Slackware.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Slack Coder
>
> ### Taler Exchange Operator Manual documentation
>
> |"taler-exchange-db|: group for all Taler users with direct database 
> access, specifically taler-exchange-httpd, taler-exchange-wire, 
> taler-exchange-closer and taler-exchange-aggregator."
>
> should be use 'taler-exchange-wirewatch' instead:
>
> "|taler-exchange-db|: group for all Taler users with direct database 
> access, specifically taler-exchange-httpd, taler-exchange-wirewatch, 
> taler-exchange-closer and taler-exchange-aggregator."

Indeed, fixed! Thanks for reporting!

> ### taler-exchange-secmod-* configuration
>
> It appears the secmod commands do not respect the TALER_DATA_HOME and 
> TALER_RUNTIME_DIR configuration parameters.  Below are snippets from 
> relevant files.
>
> ```/etc/taler/taler.conf
>
> [taler]
> CURRENCY = KUDOS
> CURRENCY_ROUND_UNIT = KUDOS:0.01
>
> TALER_HOME=/var/lib/taler
> TALER_DATA_HOME=/var/lib/taler
> TALER_CACHE_HOME=/var/cache/taler
> TALER_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/taler
>
> [...]
>
> ```
>
> ```/etc/rc.d/rc.taler-exchange
>
> # FIXME: taler-exchange-secmod commands do not respect 'TALER_DATA_HOME' 
> configuration.
> (cd /var/lib/taler
>    if [ ! -d .local ]; then
>      mkdir -p .local/share &&
>      cd .local/share &&
>      ln -fs ../.. taler
>    fi
> )
>
> # FIXME: taler-exchange-secmod commands do not respect 
> 'TALER_RUNTIME_DIR' configuration.
> (cd /tmp
>    rm -fr taler-system-runtime
>    mkdir -p /run/taler &&
>    chown root:taler /run/taler &&
>    chmod g+rwX /run/taler &&
>    ln -fs /run/taler taler-system-runtime)
>
> [...]
>
> start() {
>    echo "Starting Taler Exchange"
>
> [...]
>    daemon \
>      --name=taler-exchange-secmod-cs \
>      --user=taler-exchange-secmod-cs \
>      --pidfiles=/run/taler \
>      --output=/var/log/taler/taler-exchange-secmod-cs.log \
>      --env="USERPROFILE=/var/lib/taler" \
>      --env="TALER_DATA_HOME=/var/lib/taler" \
>      --env="TALER_CACHE_HOME=/var/cache/taler" \
>      --env="TALER_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/taler" \
>      -- taler-exchange-secmod-cs -c /etc/taler/taler.conf
>
>    daemon \
>      --name=taler-exchange-secmod-rsa \
>      --user=taler-exchange-secmod-rsa \
>      --pidfiles=/run/taler \
>      --output=/var/log/taler/taler-exchange-secmod-rsa.log \
>      --env="USERPROFILE=/var/lib/taler" \
>      --env="TALER_DATA_HOME=/var/lib/taler" \
>      --env="TALER_CACHE_HOME=/var/cache/taler" \
>      --env="TALER_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/taler" \
>      -- taler-exchange-secmod-rsa -c /etc/taler/taler.conf
>
>    daemon \
>      --name=taler-exchange-secmod-eddsa \
>      --user=taler-exchange-secmod-eddsa \
>      --pidfiles=/run/taler \
>      --output=/var/log/taler/taler-exchange-secmod-eddsa.log \
>      --env="USERPROFILE=/var/lib/taler" \
>      --env="TALER_DATA_HOME=/var/lib/taler" \
>      --env="TALER_CACHE_HOME=/var/cache/taler" \
>      --env="TALER_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/taler" \
>      -- taler-exchange-secmod-eddsa -c /etc/taler/taler.conf
> [...]
> }
>
> [...]
>
> ```

I think this is actually a bug in your taler.conf:
1) You need to put things like TALER_DATA_HOME into the [paths] section, 
the above seems to suggest you accidentally put it into [taler].
2) environment variables do NOT override existing configuration values 
in [PATHS], so your "--env" options are expected to not do anything.

Does this help?

Happy packaging!

Christian