wp-env: override generated file directory with environment variable

[noahtallen]

Description

• Adds a non-hidden default directory for Linux (~/wp-env)
• Allows a user to override the directory in which wp-env creates generated files with the WP_ENV_HOME environment variable.

Work towards #20180, but will need to continue solving it in a follow-up.

How has this been tested?

I used the environment variable locally and verified generated files were placed there. I also checked that the default location is still used if the environment variable is not specified.

I also tested that, if the container is running, the start command works successfully after deleting the wp-env home directory.

Types of changes

New Feature

Checklist:

• My code is tested.
• My code follows the WordPress code style.
• My code follows the accessibility standards.
• My code has proper inline documentation.
• I've included developer documentation if appropriate.
• I've updated all React Native files affected by any refactorings/renamings in this PR.

[noisysocks]

In the code for wp-env we call the ~/.wp-env directory the "work directory". I'm unsure if that's the best name (I struggled with choosing one!), but nonetheless thinking that we should be consistent and name this new variable something like WP_ENV_WORK_DIR.

edit: Actually, looking through it again, maybe it makes sense to call ~/.wp-env the home directory and ~/.wp-env/{hash} the work directory. Either way let's make the environment variable name match the code so that we're consistent with the terminology 🙂

[ockham]

Thanks Noah! This allows me to run wp-env at least once! 😅

~/src/gutenberg$ WP_ENV_SOURCE=~/wpenv npx wp-env start
> ✔ WordPress started. (in 296s 268ms)
~/src/gutenberg$ WP_ENV_SOURCE=~/wpenv npx wp-env stop
✔ Stopped WordPress. (in 4s 979ms)
> ~/src/gutenberg$ WP_ENV_SOURCE=~/wpenv npx wp-env start
✖ EACCES: permission denied, open '~/wpenv/6ac6b03bd54e5e922f0d180f6d7ff25d/tests-WordPress/wp-config.php'
[Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '~/wpenv/6ac6b03bd54e5e922f0d180f6d7ff25d/tests-WordPress/wp-config.php'] {
  errno: -13,
  code: 'EACCES',
  syscall: 'open',
  path: '~/wpenv/6ac6b03bd54e5e922f0d180f6d7ff25d/tests-WordPress/wp-config.php'
}

FWIW:

-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 3187 Feb 17 14:19 ~/wpenv/6ac6b03bd54e5e922f0d180f6d7ff25d/tests-WordPress/wp-config.php

whereas the other files in that directory have my user and group as their owner.

[epiqueras]

I guess we need to set the owner and permissions of the file explicitly for Linux.

[noahtallen]

Per the permissions issue, it looks as if the basic stuff is working well. So I'm not sure it's a node filesystem issue since we use nodegit to download the sourcecode which has this permissions issue. (Here's where we use it.)

Do we need to run chmod and/or chown on every downloaded file?

[noahtallen]

Actually, scratch that last comment.

• web servers on Ubuntu are under the www-data user. (https://askubuntu.com/questions/873839/what-is-the-www-data-user)
• wp-config.php is generated by the wp core install command

I think the install command, which is run by docker-compose, is just generating the file under that web server user.

So, should we chmod/chown on the wp-config file for any WordPress source?

[noahtallen]

Hm, maybe it's something else entirely. On this branch:

~/source/gutenberg(add/wp-env-support-for-source-override) » packages/env/bin/wp-env start
✖ Error while running docker-compose command.
Starting 31911d623e75f345e9ed328b9f48cff6_mysql_1 ... done
Starting 31911d623e75f345e9ed328b9f48cff6_wordpress_1 ... done
Error: 'wp-config.php' not found.
Either create one manually or use `wp config create`.

I get this on a fresh install (after deleting the wp-env directory for the project) on this branch even on macOS. lol. I've been testing in a separate plugin, which does not specify a GitHub source for WordPress, so it may just be that using a GitHub source for WordPress (like Gutenberg does) has been broken for a while... 🤔

[epiqueras]

I don't get that error.

[noahtallen]

The old command relied on this script to properly initialize the config file. I'm a bit out of my depth here; @noisysocks do you have opinions about how to handle this?

[epiqueras]

Doesn't wp core install create it for you?

[noahtallen]

Doesn't wp core install create it for you?

That's what I expected to happen as well, but if I run these commands on this branch, I consistently get this issue.

~/source/gutenberg(add/wp-env-support-for-source-override) » rm -rf ~/.wp-env
~/source/gutenberg(add/wp-env-support-for-source-override) » packages/env/bin/wp-env start
✖ Error while running docker-compose command.
Starting 31911d623e75f345e9ed328b9f48cff6_mysql_1 ... done
Starting 31911d623e75f345e9ed328b9f48cff6_wordpress_1 ... done
Error: 'wp-config.php' not found.
Either create one manually or use `wp config create`.

[noahtallen]

For that matter, I also get the error on master, so we could resolve this in a follow up.

[epiqueras]

Add logs to figure out on what line that throws. It's probably related to the new order of commands.

[noahtallen]

Ah, apparently this condition happens when:

• you already have the docker instance started
• you delete the ~/.wp-env directory
• you run wp-env start again

It looks like it can be fixed by stopping the docker instance before running wp-env start.

I think we should handle this case gracefully, but it definitely does not appear to be the reported issue.

So we're back at #20253 (comment), which I think means we just need to set the correct permissions on the wp-config file.

[epiqueras]

Any ideas @ockham?

[ockham]

Just retested this (after deleting my previous wp-env directory). Unfortunately, now the first attempt is also failing:

$ npx wp-env start
✖ EPERM: operation not permitted, chown '/home/me/wp-env/6ac6b03bd54e5e922f0d180f6d7ff25d/WordPress/wp-config.php'
[Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, chown '/home/me/wp-env/6ac6b03bd54e5e922f0d180f6d7ff25d/WordPress/wp-config.php'] {
  errno: -1,
  code: 'EPERM',
  syscall: 'chown',
  path: '/home/me/wp-env/6ac6b03bd54e5e922f0d180f6d7ff25d/WordPress/wp-config.php'
}

Looks like the chown, while a good idea, isn't working 🙁

Let's go back to the state of this PR before the chown I guess? Working at least once is better than not working 😅

[ockham]

Any ideas @ockham?

Just saw this -- unfortunately, I don't have any ideas; I'm seeing different errors.

@sainthkh I'm using the 'Snap' package for Docker that Ubuntu provides (in its Software Center) -- have you tried that? (You'd probably need to remoive your current Docker setup 😅 )

[ockham]

Blocking merge b/c of #20253 (comment)

[ockham]

As a follow-up to this PR, we might consider generating the wp-config.php as suggested by @noisysocks here (#20253 (comment)):

We should test if generating a wp-config.php ourselves using wp config generate causes the config file to have correct permissions.

(Maybe this stands a better chance of success since it's called from within the container. Bit of a hand-waving argument here 😅 )

Suggesting to do this as a follow-up, since all of this is a massive can of worms, and I think it makes sense to divide and conquer: Make this PR only about the env variable (and its Linux default), and tackle wp-config permissions separately.

[epiqueras]

Suggesting to do this as a follow-up, since all of this is a massive can of worms, and I think it makes sense to divide and conquer: Make this PR only about the env variable (and its Linux default), and tackle wp-config permissions separately.

Agreed, unless we can fix chown somehow.

[ockham]

Suggesting to do this as a follow-up, since all of this is a massive can of worms, and I think it makes sense to divide and conquer: Make this PR only about the env variable (and its Linux default), and tackle wp-config permissions separately.

Agreed, unless we can fix chown somehow.

My gut says that the chown issue is actually the same as the previous one with accessing the wp-config: When done from outside the container, we plainly lack permissions, no matter what we try to do with that file. (But yeah, this is clearly not my domain of expertise, so I might be wrong.)

[epiqueras]

It makes sense, you need permissions to change permissions. We would need to sudo somehow.

[noahtallen]

Sad to hear that it did not work. I've removed chown from this branch now; I agree that it makes sense to split this up and continue trying to fix that issue after merging the other stuff here :)

[noahtallen]

mysqlcheck: Got error: 2002: Can't connect to MySQL server on 'mysql' (115) when trying to connect

@sainthkh Thanks for the test! Interestingly, I also saw a similar error yesterday when running docker-compose run cli wp config create.

[noahtallen]

cc @ockham and @noisysocks for ✅

[noisysocks]

Looks good!

[sainthkh]

I changed to snap docker. But there was no difference.

✖ Error while running docker-compose command.
Starting 841be7b26bd583f294009fefb90de98d_mysql_1 ... done
Starting 841be7b26bd583f294009fefb90de98d_wordpress_1 ... done
mysqlcheck: Got error: 1049: Unknown database 'wordpress' when selecting the database

I either get no 'wordpress' or cannot connect error.

[ockham]

Thanks Noah! We're back to this behavior -- which, as discussed, is an improvement over the previous state of things!

[noahtallen]

@ockham & @sainthkh Thanks for the continued testing. I can keep working towards #20180, but it is a bit tough since I don't have a way to test that the changes work. :) The two things I'm thinking of for next steps are:

1. Try generating the wp-config.php file ourselves
2. Look up mysql connection bugs. I wonder if we need to define a network for the different Docker services?

[epiqueras]

Has anyone reproduced the connection issue? It might be a third party problem.

[noahtallen]

I did see a similar error locally when I was playing around with generating the config file, so I'll keep an eye out for it

[gglnx]

Starting 8dd17dfdf919942794ccb8bf7b39ce80_mysql_1 ... done
Starting 8dd17dfdf919942794ccb8bf7b39ce80_wordpress_1 ... done
mysqlcheck: Got error: 1049: Unknown database 'wordpress' when selecting the database

Starting 8dd17dfdf919942794ccb8bf7b39ce80_mysql_1 ... done
Starting 8dd17dfdf919942794ccb8bf7b39ce80_wordpress_1 ... done
mysqlcheck: Got error: 1049: Unknown database 'wordpress' when selecting the database

I've got the same problem. Tried it with sudo and without it. Using the latest Docker Desktop (Mac, 2.2.0.3).

[jorgefilipecosta]

Hi @noahtallen should this PR be backported into WordPress 5.4? If yes, feel free to add the label backport to wp core.

[noahtallen]

Hi @noahtallen should this PR be backported into WordPress 5.4?

If the other PRs for wp-env are being backported, I don't see why not :)