/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=info can cause PHP Warning: Linker::userToolLinks received an empty username.
Closed, ResolvedPublicPRODUCTION ERROR
Actions

Description

Error

Request URL: https://mh.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=info
Request ID: XOO8XgpAIC4AALtisD0AAACH

message

PHP Warning: Linker::userLink received an empty username. Are there database errors that need to be fixed? [Called from Linker::userLink in /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/Linker.php at line 899]

trace

#0 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/debug/MWDebug.php(309): MWExceptionHandler::handleError(integer, string, string, integer, array, array)
#1 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/debug/MWDebug.php(164): MWDebug::sendMessage(string, array, string, integer)
#2 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(1069): MWDebug::warning(string, integer, integer, string)
#3 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/Linker.php(899): wfLogWarning(string)
#4 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/Linker.php(1126): Linker::userLink(integer, string)
#5 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/actions/InfoAction.php(564): Linker::revUserTools(Revision)
#6 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/actions/InfoAction.php(120): InfoAction->pageInfo()
#7 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/actions/FormlessAction.php(43): InfoAction->onView()
#8 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/MediaWiki.php(499): FormlessAction->show()
#9 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/MediaWiki.php(294): MediaWiki->performAction(Article, Title)
#10 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/MediaWiki.php(865): MediaWiki->performRequest()
#11 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/includes/MediaWiki.php(515): MediaWiki->main()
#12 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.34.0-wmf.5/index.php(42): MediaWiki->run()
#13 /srv/mediawiki/w/index.php(3): include(string)
#14 {main}

Impact

This error indicates MediaWiki is unable to render a link to a username despite the code expecting to be able to do so.

This happens on the "Page information" action, for the "Page creator" field. The impact is that for a number of pages this now says: "(no username available)"

Example: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=info

Page creator	(no username available) (no username available)
Date of page creation	23:18, 10 June 2004 ( https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=12270 )

Apparently when trying to retrieve the username for the first page creation (based on pageinfo-firstuser). Which is a revision by the MediaWiki installer / addWiki:

https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&dir=prev&limit=1&action=history

So that is most probably a very old bug from includes/actions/InfoAction.php

Notes

Started with 1.34-wmf.4, triggered about 5,000 times per week.

Screenshot 2019-05-24 at 16.06.16.png (784×2 px, 185 KB)

Details

	Project	Branch	Lines +/-	Subject
	mediawiki/core	wmf/1.34.0-wmf.6	+4 -4	Switch empty username logging from warning to debug.
	mediawiki/core	master	+4 -4	Switch empty username logging from warning to debug.

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Mentioned In: T224368: Ensure Linker::userLink is not called with empty user name
Mentioned Here: T224368: Ensure Linker::userLink is not called with empty user name
rMWddd1d4b9203a: Log warning and show error on empty username

Event Timeline

hashar created this task.May 21 2019, 5:26 PM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptMay 21 2019, 5:26 PM

hashar triaged this task as Low priority.May 21 2019, 5:26 PM

Krinkle moved this task from Older to May 2019 / 1.34.wmf.5+ on the Wikimedia-production-error board.May 24 2019, 2:51 PM

Raising priority because the bug and/or detection is recently introduced, uses a severity we actively monitor globally, and has high frequency.

If this feature is known to be broken, please disable the logging and/or use debug severity until the known problems are fixed.

Traced to ddd1d4b9203aa / https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/508287 (@Simetrical, @daniel).

Krinkle added a project: Platform Engineering.May 24 2019, 3:06 PM

Krinkle added a subscriber: BPirkle.

Krinkle added subscribers: Simetrical, daniel.

Change 512461 had a related patch set uploaded (by BPirkle; owner: BPirkle):
[mediawiki/core@master] Switch empty username logging from warning to debug.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/512461

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.May 25 2019, 2:21 AM

Change 512531 had a related patch set uploaded (by Krinkle; owner: BPirkle):
[mediawiki/core@wmf/1.34.0-wmf.6] Switch empty username logging from warning to debug.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/512531

This is a known problem, but not all instances of the problem are known. The purpose of logging is to identify all code paths that trigger this warning. It would be useful to have a collection of different stack traces here, before we switch severity to "debug".

I recommend against merging the proposed patch before we have a good overview of what code paths need fixing.

There is one stack trace and URL in the task description. And an overview by wiki, by entrypoint, and all the 5,371 other stack traces and their request URLs are available in Logstash, where they will retain for 30 days. Is that enough time to capture what you need into the task?

For any URL, even after this patch, one can use WikimediaDebug+log to see if it still triggers the issue e.g. after a patch intending to fix one of the issues is deployed, to verify it.

Change 512461 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@master] Switch empty username logging from warning to debug.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/512461

In T224050#5213055, @Krinkle wrote:

There is one stack trace and URL in the task description. And an overview by wiki, by entrypoint, and all the 5,371 other stack traces and their request URLs are available in Logstash, where they will retain for 30 days. Is that enough time to capture what you need into the task?

Right - as long as "someone" does it :) I filed a ticket: T224368: Ensure Linker::userLink is not called with empty user name

For any URL, even after this patch, one can use WikimediaDebug+log to see if it still triggers the issue e.g. after a patch intending to fix one of the issues is deployed, to verify it.

The works if you already know the functionality that triggers the problem.

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.34-notes (1.34.0-wmf.7; 2019-05-28).May 26 2019, 2:00 PM

Further work will be done on T224368.

Change 512531 abandoned by Krinkle:
Switch empty username logging from warning to debug.