mythfilldatabase reports misleading error when external grabber is not found

[Martin Schwenke]

When running mythfilldatabase it reported:

2019-07-15 08:18:15.066124 E tv_grab_au --capabilities failed or we timed out waiting. You may need to upgrade your xmltv grabber 2019-07-15 08:18:15.066185 E Grabbing XMLTV data using tv_grab_au is not supported. You may need to upgrade to the latest version of XMLTV.

However, the real problem was that the external grabber tv_grab_au was not in $PATH, so could not be found by mythfilldatabase.

I was moving my configuration/database to a new installation. I have no idea how tv_grab_au was previously found on the old machine. However, the above error message sent me in the wrong direction and wasted a couple of hours.

I notice that the relevant code in FillData::Run() is:

if (grabber_capabilities_proc.Wait() != GENERIC_EXIT_OK)

LOG(VB_GENERAL, LOG_ERR,

QString("%1 --capabilities failed or we timed out waiting." " You may need to upgrade your xmltv grabber")

.arg(xmltv_grabber));

else

Comparing this code to GrabberScript::run(), I can see that instead it would be possible to assign the return value to a variable and check for GENERIC_EXIT_CMD_NOT_FOUND. Perhaps something like the following:

uint status = grabber_capabilities_proc.Wait();

if( status == GENERIC_EXIT_CMD_NOT_FOUND )

LOG(VB_GENERAL, LOG_ERR,

QString("xmltv grabber %1 not found")

.arg(xmltv_grabber));

else if( status != GENERIC_EXIT_OK )

LOG(VB_GENERAL, LOG_ERR,

QString("%1 --capabilities failed or we timed out waiting." " You may need to upgrade your xmltv grabber")

.arg(xmltv_grabber));

else

[Stuart Auchterlonie]

We have moved all bug tracking to github [1]

If you continue to have this issue, please open a new issue at github, referencing this ticket.

[1] - ​https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/issues