1.16. Known Issues

Installation dependencies

The datalab standalone task now has the following dependencies listed: httplib2, lxml, vos, fuse. Additionally, depending on the version of python used, httplib2 may be required.

VOSpace service and mount location are static

  • Environment settings

    VOSpace service instances can be allowed, by setting an environment variable: VOSPACE_URL. Additionally, the directory where scripts/config files are found is also set by an environment variable: VOSPACE_CAPSDIR.

  • Change the default location of the FUSE mount

    As part of the installation, this can be done by changing the value of the DEFAULT_VOSPACE_URI variable in vos.py to the node that you want as the root of the mounted tree.

Installation with Anaconda vs default Python

  • Currently, the version of Anaconda matters. The Anaconda for Python 2.7 is currently preferred.

  • Anaconda can install in a user space. In situations where the user does not have system privileges, Anaconda can be installed in the user’s own space.

  • sudo may be required if installing with the system-provided python, such as on Ubuntu.

OS X issues

  • ‘cp’ warns about extended attributes

    The Mac OS X filesystem adds extra (extended) attributes to some files. Using cp -X ... will do a copy without the extended attributes or resource forks and does not produce the warning message.

  • Finder drag-and-drop

    Drag-and-drop under OS X is not fully supported by FUSE and all versions of OS X; an error message of “The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.” will be seen. If this happens, copy operations should be handled from the command line.

VOSpace behaving as defined, but may be unexpected to the user

  • Cannot use spaces in filenames

    The VOSpace standard does not support whitespace in filenames.

  • VOSpace links

    VOSpace does not distinguish between hard and symbolic links. This does not necessarily translate into a Unix-stlye link in the file system.

  • The ‘rmdir’ deletes populated folders without warning

    VOSpace specifies that when the target is a ContainerNode, all its children (the contents of the container) SHALL also be deleted. Thus, all contents of a folder submitted to ‘rmdir’ will be removed, without warning.

  • ‘chattr’ is not supported in VOSpace

    There is no equivalent function in VOSpace.

  • VOSpace permissions are handled differently from Unix permissions (vospace #50, #48, #49)

    There is not a strict one-to-one mapping between Unix permissions and how VOSpace handles them. VOSpace/FUSE limits permissions to make a file publicly readable and turn on/off group read/write permissions.

‘vi’ is not the preferred editor Due to the way temporary files are handled with ‘vi’, editing can be lost when using it on existing files.

Errors that should be reported, if seen The error: “mount_osxfusefs: failed to mount /private/tmp/vospace@/dev/osxfuse0: Resource temporarily unavailable” indicates a problem with Data Lab that needs to be addressed by the Data Lab team; please contact the Data Lab if you receive this message.