id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
3126	modpython handler behaves differently when url matches existing file	Arthur Hebert	Adrian Holovaty	"I am migrating my site from PHP to Django, so my public_html directory is full of my old files, such as ''index.php''. Such files are no longer loaded by apache, because they are overridden by ''/etc/apache2/modules.d/16_mod_python.conf'':

{{{
...
<Directory /space/arthur/public_html/>
    SetHandler python-program
    PythonHandler django.core.handlers.modpython
    SetEnv DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE artybear.settings
    PythonPath ""['/home/arthur/projects'] + sys.path""
    PythonDebug On
</Directory>
...
}}}

If I request a url that points to the name of a file that exists under the ''public_html/'' directory (not including the file's extension), then I get the following error:

{{{
Mod_python error: ""PythonHandler django.core.handlers.modpython""

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File ""/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/mod_python/apache.py"", line 299, in HandlerDispatch
    result = object(req)

  File ""/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/core/handlers/modpython.py"", line 177, in handler
    return ModPythonHandler()(req)

  File ""/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/django/core/handlers/modpython.py"", line 137, in __call__
    os.environ.update(req.subprocess_env)

  File ""/usr/lib/python2.4/os.py"", line 478, in update
    self[k] = dict[k]

  File ""/usr/lib/python2.4/os.py"", line 463, in __setitem__
    putenv(key, item)

TypeError: putenv() argument 2 must be string, not list
}}}

For example, ''artybear.com/foobar'' will return the Django debug page, but ''artybear.com/index'' will give the error above. If I remove the file ''index.php'' from the ''public_html/'' directory, then ''artybear.com/index'' will return the Django debug page. 

Oddly, ''artybear.com/index.php'' will return the Django debug page. The problem only seems to occur when the url points to the basename of a file that Apache would otherwise handle with another program. Some further tests:

{{{
$ cd /space/arthur/public_html/
$
$ touch foobar.php            # artybear.com/foobar returns error page
$ mv foobar.php foobar        # artybear.com/foobar returns Django debug page
$ mv foobar foobar.txt        # artybear.com/foobar returns error page
$ mv foobar.txt foobar.foo    # artybear.com/foobar returns Django debug page
}}}

This is problematic if there's a file called admin.php, because it returns the error page instead of the mapped url (Django's admin page).

I have Django source revision 4193, according to ''svn update''. "	defect	closed	Core (Other)	dev	normal	duplicate			Unreviewed	0	0	0	0	0	0