davfs2 has problems with MS IIS 7.5 WebDAV server

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Hi edice,

Can you please report to this bug / patch to upstream (https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=davfs2) to have a better review from the point of maintainers?

Thanks.

I've reported it here:
https://savannah.nongnu.org/support/index.php?110254

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 at 14:10, Woodrow Shen <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Hi edice,
>
> Can you please report to this bug / patch to upstream
> (https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=davfs2) to have a better review
> from the point of maintainers?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1851326
>
> Title:
> davfs2 has problems with MS IIS 7.5 WebDAV server
>
> Status in davfs2 package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> davfs2 doesn't work with Microsoft's IIS 7.5 WebDAV implementation,
> because davfs2 requires the extra translate:f header to be added.
>
> This is not just for MS's implementation, other WebDAV servers
> apparently added it too.
> https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19146-01/821-1828/gczya/index.html
>
> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-wdvse/501879f9-3875-4d7a-ab88-3cecab440034
>
> The docs say that IF the client doesn't send the header, the server
> should send back a URI to the resource, like a redirect, at least I think
> so.
> But, MS's implementation doesn't. Instead it just returns a "server
> error 500".
>
> This happens to me ONLY with files that have no extension.
> Example: I can get "readme.txt",but I can't get a file called "config"
> (eg the config file in a .git folder).
>
> It worked on Windows 10, so I used Burp Suite to inspect the HTTPS
> comms with the server and discovered the translate header. I tested
> with curl and sure enough it worked with the header.
>
> curl -H "translate: f" --insecure --proxy 127.0.0.1:8080 --user
> "user:pass" https://the.host.name/folder/project.git/config
> WORKED
> Without the -H "translate: f", the curl call did not work.
>
> The translate header seems to be added to just about every call to the
> WebDAV server, except HEAD.
>
> I also made an additional patch for libneon as it has its own functions
> for building the requests. I don't think this affects davfs2, however for
> reference, the bug report is here:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/neon27/+bug/1851325
>
>
> Attached is a patch that fixes up davfs2.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/davfs2/+bug/1851326/+subscriptions
>

Great, thanks. I'm looking forward to expecting community's feedback.

Already got feedback.

In short, upstream doesn't seem a problem with their software not
supporting a major webdav server out of the box,
and also suggests changing the server, something that is not possible in
most corporate environments with IIS.

Will Ubuntu make the necessary changes to make Ubuntu useful in a corporate
environment?
My current solution is to use Windows when I am forced to use the webdav
server in my environment.

Comment from upstream below.

Update of sr #110254 (project davfs2):

                Severity: 4 - Important => 3 - Normal
                  Status: None => Wont Do
             Assigned to: None => wbaumann

    _______________________________________________________

Follow-up Comment #1:

davfs2 already has option add_header to add this header if required. It
might
be a good idea to read the documentation before writing patches: "man
mount.davfs", "man davfs2.conf", "man umount.davfs".

davfs2 will not by default send vendor-specific non-standard headers. You
have
to configure them if needed.

Hint concerning file extensions:
When I tested with IIS many years ago IIS would only deliver files with
extensions that were registerd as known extensions with the windows
operationg
system. So I could upload (with PUT) a file with extension .odt and the file
was stored on the server. But when I tried to retrieve the file with GET I
got
404 NOT FOUND. You might have to change the server configuration to solve
problems with file extensions.

On Wed, 1 Jul 2020 at 16:01, Woodrow Shen <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Great, thanks. I'm looking forward to expecting community's feedback.
>
> ** Changed in: davfs2 (Ubuntu)
> Status: Incomplete => Confirmed
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1851326
>
> Title:
> davfs2 has problems with MS IIS 7.5 WebDAV server
>
> Status in davfs2 package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> davfs2 doesn't work with Microsoft's IIS 7.5 WebDAV implementation,
> because davfs2 requires the extra translate:f header to be added.
>
> This is not just for MS's implementation, other WebDAV servers
> apparently added it too.
> https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19146-01/821-1828/gczya/index.html
>
> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-wdvse/501879f9-3875-4d7a-ab88-3cecab440034
>
> The docs say that IF the client doesn't send the header, the server
> should send back a URI to the resource, like a redirect, at least I think
> so.
> But, MS's implementation doesn't. Instead it just returns a "server
> error 500".
>
> This happens to me ONLY with files that have no extension.
> Example: I can get "readme.txt",but I can't get a file called "config"
> (eg the config file in a .git folder).
>
> It worked on Windows 10, so I used Burp Suite to inspect the HTTPS
> comms with the server and discovered the translate header. I tested
> with curl and sure enough it worked with the header.
>
> curl -H "translate: f" --insecure --proxy 127.0.0.1:8080 --user
> "user:pass" https://the.host.name/folder/pro...

Hi edice,

Please note that davfs2 is universe package and people can contribute patches via SRU process[1], and you can follow this flow to find someone (motu developers) to sponsor this package if you're confident to these changes.

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Procedure