Improve error handling for missing files (#2551)

`os.path.exists` doesn't allow us to distinguish between permissions errors and
the path actually not existing, which repeatedly confuses people. It also means
that we try to overwrite existing key files, which is super-confusing. (cf
issues #2455, #2379). Use os.stat instead.

Also, don't recomemnd the the use of --generate-config, which screws everything
up if you're using debian (cf #2455).

1 files changed, 26 insertions, 10 deletions

diff --git a/synapse/config/_base.py b/synapse/config/_base.py
index 1ab5593c6e..fa105bce72 100644
--- a/synapse/config/_base.py
+++ b/synapse/config/_base.py
@@ -82,21 +82,37 @@ class Config(object):
         return os.path.abspath(file_path) if file_path else file_path
 
     @classmethod
+    def path_exists(cls, file_path):
+        """Check if a file exists
+
+        Unlike os.path.exists, this throws an exception if there is an error
+        checking if the file exists (for example, if there is a perms error on
+        the parent dir).
+
+        Returns:
+            bool: True if the file exists; False if not.
+        """
+        try:
+            os.stat(file_path)
+            return True
+        except OSError as e:
+            if e.errno != errno.ENOENT:
+                raise e
+            return False
+
+    @classmethod
     def check_file(cls, file_path, config_name):
         if file_path is None:
             raise ConfigError(
                 "Missing config for %s."
-                " You must specify a path for the config file. You can "
-                "do this with the -c or --config-path option. "
-                "Adding --generate-config along with --server-name "
-                "<server name> will generate a config file at the given path."
                 % (config_name,)
             )
-        if not os.path.exists(file_path):
+        try:
+            os.stat(file_path)
+        except OSError as e:
             raise ConfigError(
-                "File %s config for %s doesn't exist."
-                " Try running again with --generate-config"
-                % (file_path, config_name,)
+                "Error accessing file '%s' (config for %s): %s"
+                % (file_path, config_name, e.strerror)
             )
         return cls.abspath(file_path)
 
@@ -248,7 +264,7 @@ class Config(object):
                     " -c CONFIG-FILE\""
                 )
             (config_path,) = config_files
-            if not os.path.exists(config_path):
+            if not cls.path_exists(config_path):
                 if config_args.keys_directory:
                     config_dir_path = config_args.keys_directory
                 else:
@@ -261,7 +277,7 @@ class Config(object):
                         "Must specify a server_name to a generate config for."
                         " Pass -H server.name."
                     )
-                if not os.path.exists(config_dir_path):
+                if not cls.path_exists(config_dir_path):
                     os.makedirs(config_dir_path)
                 with open(config_path, "wb") as config_file:
                     config_bytes, config = obj.generate_config(