Category: Rails

GitLab: Your changes could not be commited, because the file has been changed

Not long ago I've migrated last of my SVN-managed projects into Git with GitLab (finally!). Everything was OK, until this message occurred, when I tried to do an web-based repository file update:

Your changes could not be commited, because the file has been changed

After googling I've executed following command (because I didn't create satellites earlier):

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:satellites:create RAILS_ENV=production

Unfortunately this didn't solve my problem (although I'm pretty sure, that either way this was required). I've decided to check GitLab logs, but unluckily nothing suspicious was there. I suddenly remembered, that by default all my Rails/Rack Passenger applications are executed using www-data user. This was a good guess. I've added a user declaration in Apache vhost configuration file:

PassengerUser git

and after that I've finally started to get some new things in application log:

Errno::EACCES (Permission denied - /home/git/gitlab/tmp/satellite_15.lock):
  lib/gitlab/satellite/satellite.rb:57:in `initialize'
  lib/gitlab/satellite/satellite.rb:57:in `open'
  lib/gitlab/satellite/satellite.rb:57:in `lock'
  lib/gitlab/satellite/action.rb:23:in `block in in_locked_and_timed_satellite'
  lib/gitlab/satellite/action.rb:22:in `in_locked_and_timed_satellite'
  lib/gitlab/satellite/edit_file_action.rb:22:in `commit!'
  app/controllers/edit_tree_controller.rb:18:in `update'

All my satellite locks were created by www-data user with different set of privileges, so git user was not able to use them. After I removed all the locks and restarted both GitLab and Apache server, everything started to work just fine:

sudo rm /home/gitlab/tmp/satellite_*
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
/etc/init.d/gitlab restart

Medialab – Social Innovations Lab – Presentation & Short description

Recently I took part in MediaLab - Social Innovation Lab that focused on social issues which could be solved with new technologies. During the lab, I gave a small presentation about web applications. It can be downloaded here: About web apps

I must say, that it was pretty amazing experience. Working with non-IT people in order to develop an IT tool is really something else. A quick briefing on how did it look like:

  • groups of 8-10
  • 1 IT mentor per each group
  • 1 non IT mentor per each group
  • 4 days (2 weekends)
  • variety of skills among people in the same group
  • great attitude
  • 8h/day

We had 4 days (2 weekends) for idea, research, development, design and marketing strategy. I think we did pretty amazing thing: Incydentnik. It is a simple application that allows you to mark dangerous/not friendly places in Cracow, so other people will know about such places.

incydentnik1

incydentnik2

Some photos from the event:

If you consider participating in event of such type - don't hesitate! It is 100% worth it!

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914163_498077310245778_424645888_o

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