Apache - Adds two Backslashes

apache, slashes, error, log

[DarkEden Genesis]

Hello friends,

First of all I wish the best changes on your lives on this 2012.
Wish you can see, understand and accept this changes.

Peace.


My aplication wasn't working.
So I checked the Apache log and I face an odd thing: something is calling wrong file.
There are two backslashes before the file that my application need to reads in order to work

error_log

[Wed Jan 04 01:45:34 2012] [error] [client 177.42.30.26] File does not exist: /var/www/html/update/\\PatchList.dat

I can't figure out how to fix it nor why it's happening.

What must I do?


Thank you all.

[lucy24]

The Error Log is generally not the best source of information. It's simply reporting what has already happened. What does the Access Log say, and most importantly, what does the page itself say? What language is it in? (Er, php/jsp/whatever, not English or French ;)) How and where is the .dat file called?

[DarkEden Genesis]

Hi Lucy,

I think the access log has nothing to do at this moment. Isn't it about permissions?

Anyway, here is access_log report:

151.41.82.12 - - [04/Jan/2012:15:04:47 +0000] "GET /update/\\PatchList.dat HTTP/1.1" 404 297 "-" "GHperX/1.25"

How I know what the "page itself say"?
What language is it in? There is no website. The domain is used just as patcher.

The .dat file is on the system path: /var/www/html/update/PatchList.dat.
For some reason it's being called as /var/www/html/update/\\PatchList.dat


What's the next step?

Thank you Lucy

[lucy24]

When I say "the page itself" I mean the whatever-it-is that calls the .dat file in the first place. The thing that's getting patched. That's where the (programming) language comes into play.

Apache itself is painfully literal: it gives you-- or tries to give you-- precisely what you asked for. There are a lot of things out there calling themselves .dat, so I'm not going to try to guess.

[DarkEden Genesis]

It's a program. It does calls the PatchList.dat.
That's the way it updates itself.

But it always worked, so it isn't the responsible of the program not work.

[g1smd]

Did the initial URL request contain these backslashes?


If not, some other factor, such as an internal RewriteRule, introduced them.

[DarkEden Genesis]

I guess it's some configuration.

I have rent a server from a company and it came with CentOs.
I haven't touched any configuration yet, so it stills with the standard one.

The initial URL does not contains these backslashes, it's comming from somewhere else.

I don't know what to do...to be honest I came here because I've heard many about Jim Morgan...

Tell me, there is any log that I should look for more information?
As Lucy said, error_log of Apache seems not to be the best source.

[tangor]

Have you changed servers? Upgraded the OS? Is there a fixed date when this behavior started? How long has it worked before it broke?

What application is making this call?

[DarkEden Genesis]

It's a game that uses an updater.exe to updates the game files.

I rented this server like four days ago.
It never worked here.

I believe it's some configuration.
I can't think anything else.

[tangor]

I'm more intrigued with the UA "GHperX/1.25", of which a web search renders ONLY this specific message thread at WW in at Google (Bing hasn't picked it up yet). What is that UA? Is that the only UA which generates this error?

Is the update.exe being called by the server on request and failing? (Which could be a problem in the update.exe calling for remote updates).

BTW, Welcome to Webmasterworld! Let's keep the game name out of the conversation while we try to figure out what's not working. But you do know that the game is supposed to work on Apache servers, right? If which case it could well be a configuration problem, particularly in granting permissions, etc. Might also talk to your host to see if they have something in place which prevents the app from working.

[DarkEden Genesis]

Good idea...I'll talk to the host, but I don't believe they will be helpful anyway.

I don't understand about that GHperX thing, the log doesn't says to much for me.
The only thing I can understand from that is: something in my server is putting those backslashes.

It isn't updater.exe fault...I have already tried another source and it worked. I can even change to that host, but this one must work in order to I redirect to that...

It has 99% of chance to be a config problem.

What can we do?