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[Aaron Wells <1465882@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Public bug reported:

One of the oldest lines of code in the current Mahara codebase, is an
undocumented feature in init.php. It checks for
$_SERVER['MAHARA_LIBDIR'], and if this is present, it uses this location
for $CFG->libdir instead of the default location $CFG->docroot/lib.

The $_SERVER superglobal is populated by the SAPI that's running PHP. If
you're using mod_php, you can set it using the Apache directive "SetEnv
MAHARA_LIBDIR /path/to/libdir". If you're executing PHP from the
command-line, you can set it by exporting an environment fariable, i.e.
"MAHARA_LIBDIR=/path/to/libdir; export MAHARA_LIBDIR; php
htdocs/lib/cron.php"

There's really no reason to have this code in place. There is no
supported Mahara hosting use-case where you would need the lib directory
to be in a non-standard location. And as such, all this does is provide
a potential vector for errors and attacks. So, I'm going to remove it.

** Affects: mahara
     Importance: Low
         Status: In Progress

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1465882

Title:
  Remove obsolete $_SERVER['MAHARA_LIBDIR'] option

Status in Mahara ePortfolio:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  One of the oldest lines of code in the current Mahara codebase, is an
  undocumented feature in init.php. It checks for
  $_SERVER['MAHARA_LIBDIR'], and if this is present, it uses this
  location for $CFG->libdir instead of the default location
  $CFG->docroot/lib.

  The $_SERVER superglobal is populated by the SAPI that's running PHP.
  If you're using mod_php, you can set it using the Apache directive
  "SetEnv MAHARA_LIBDIR /path/to/libdir". If you're executing PHP from
  the command-line, you can set it by exporting an environment fariable,
  i.e. "MAHARA_LIBDIR=/path/to/libdir; export MAHARA_LIBDIR; php
  htdocs/lib/cron.php"

  There's really no reason to have this code in place. There is no
  supported Mahara hosting use-case where you would need the lib
  directory to be in a non-standard location. And as such, all this does
  is provide a potential vector for errors and attacks. So, I'm going to
  remove it.

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