Fetching of update-information-XML fails (and does it silently)

[te-online]

Disclaimer: Since this issue seems to be in a file that we have in core, maybe I should open the issue in core? I don't know and would be greatful if you tell me! 😄

The problem with the particular ownCloud instance is, that I can't update it via the updater starting from the last update. I was able to track down the error to the call of the http-client-library / guzzlhttp.

This is the code in https://github.com/owncloud/core/blob/master/lib/private/updater.php#L166

//fetch xml data from updater
$url = $updaterUrl . '?version=' . $versionString;

$tmp = [];
$xml = $this->httpHelper->getUrlContent($url);
if ($xml) {
    $loadEntities = libxml_disable_entity_loader(true);
    $data = @simplexml_load_string($xml);
    libxml_disable_entity_loader($loadEntities);
    if ($data !== false) {
        $tmp['version'] = (string)$data->version;
        $tmp['versionstring'] = (string)$data->versionstring;
        $tmp['url'] = (string)$data->url;
        $tmp['web'] = (string)$data->web;
    }
} else {
    $data = [];
}

// Cache the result
$this->config->setAppValue('core', 'lastupdateResult', json_encode($data));
return $tmp;

I could check that the $url is put together right. I can call the endpoint with the produced URL and get the right answer (update to 8.2.1.4). But the $xml variable is just a false boolean after execution.

What can I do to fix this? Is it a known issue? Maybe an issue with the 3rdparty-library?
Thanks for any ideas. 😊

---

Steps to reproduce

1. Permanent problem, no steps.

Expected behaviour

If updater app can't fetch update feed from https://updates.owncloud.com/server/ it won't show that owncloud is up-to-date. Maybe it will throw an error, but for sure it will log the problem.

Actual behaviour

Nothing happens. Updater says installation is up-to-date.

Server configuration

Operating system:
Linux "2.6.32-573.7.1.el6.x86_64" (CentOS, I suppose.)

Web server:
Apache

Database:
MySQL 5.0.11

PHP version:
5.6.15

ownCloud version: (see ownCloud admin page)
8.1.1

[te-online]

Okay, dear guys! Everybody seems to be in year's end busy mood 😉 🎅

So I just went crazy replaced this line

$xml = $this->httpHelper->getUrlContent($url);

with

$xml = file_get_contents($url);

If all solutions where so easy...

Had to do the upgrade via command line, though. I suspect a timeout while checking the database. 😞 But now I'm up-to-date again (and will clean up my blown-up database) 😊

[te-online]

Ah, by the way: I think, this is related and might be the cause of the problem:
owncloud/core#16255