Bug 454084

Summary:	net-wireless/hostapd USE=-debug prints no messages
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Ayron Jungren <ajungren>
Component:	Current packages	Assignee:	Bjarke Istrup Pedersen (RETIRED) <gurligebis>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Ayron Jungren 2013-01-25 23:28:10 UTC

net-wireless/hostapd without the debug USE flag adds "CONFIG_NO_STDOUT_DEBUG=y" to the configuration file. This disables ALL errors, including syntax errors in the configuration file. Additionally, I am completely unable to use hostapd without the debug USE flag because it terminates immediately after reading the configuration file (as seen with strace). It's not a syntax error with the configuration error, as hostapd[debug] works fine.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Build net-wireless/hostapd[-debug]
2. Use a configuration file with a syntax error (even /dev/null works)
Actual Results:  
No error, hostapd exits immediately

Expected Results:  
hostapd should give an error specifying what's wrong in the configuration file

As I mentioned, I cannot use hostapd[-debug] at all but at least one other person could not reproduce the problem.

Furthermore, Jouni Malinen (developer of hostapd) said this on the mailing list:
Is that CONFIG_NO_STDOUT_DEBUG=y used as the default build option there?
If so, it is very user unfriendly option and not really something I
would recommend for a generic distribution. The only reason to add that
entry is if you need to minimize the binary size for an embedded device
with limited flash. If you want to debug anything (including
configuration file errors or any problems setting up the interface), you
do not want that build option.

Comment 1 Tomáš Chvátal (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2013-04-29 18:30:24 UTC

Fixed in 2.0 ebuild.

Thanks a lot for this report. Helped me to figure out wtf was that app doing.