# Bug or feature?!

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/bug-or-feature/66660>\
**Category:** Radiant CMS\
**Created:** [August 28, 2006, 10:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/bug-or-feature/66660 "2006-08-28T10:32:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jake\_Liddell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@Jake\_Liddell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jake_Liddell)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2006, 10:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/bug-or-feature/66660/1 "2006-08-28T10:32:17Z")

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Hi all,

Hereâ??s a weird one. If I include the words â??mkdir radiantâ? anywhere in  
a  
page, even between

 tags, the page wonâ??t save â?? it returns:

Precondition Failed

The precondition on the request for the URL /admin/pages/13/child/new  
evaluated to false.

Is this some strange anti-script-injection measure, or is it just a  
weird  
bug? Whatâ??s it actually testing for?

Cheers,

Jake.

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**Author:** ![Jake\_Liddell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@Jake\_Liddell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jake_Liddell)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2006, 10:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/bug-or-feature/66660/2 "2006-08-28T10:46:18Z")

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On Aug 28, 2006, at 5:30 PM, Jake Liddell wrote:

> The precondition on the request for the URL /admin/pages/13/child/  
> new evaluated to false.
> 
> Is this some strange anti-script-injection measure, or is it just a  
> weird bug? What?s it actually testing for?  
> This would be due to your hosting provider, its a common way to try  
> to reduce spam/cracking attacks. All these checks happen before  
> Radiant ever sees your request, so there isn’t much that can be done  
> on that end. Try contacting the company you get web-space from.

Bodhi

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jake\_Liddell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@Jake\_Liddell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jake_Liddell)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/bug-or-feature/66660/3 "2006-08-29T03:17:19Z")

</div>

> > Is this some strange anti-script-injection measure, or is  
> > it just a  
> > weird bug? What’s it actually testing for?  
> > This would be due to your hosting provider, its a common way to try  
> > to reduce spam/cracking attacks. All these checks happen before  
> > Radiant ever sees your request, so there isn’t much that can be done  
> > on that end. Try contacting the company you get web-space from.

Another way around it might be to replace some of your string with  
entity declarations, ie.

mkdir radiant

If you’re really lucky, you might be able to get away with just  
replacing the space (mkdir&nbsp;radiant) which wont destroy the  
readability so much.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jake\_Liddell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@Jake\_Liddell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Jake_Liddell)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2006, 11:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/bug-or-feature/66660/4 "2006-08-29T11:10:37Z")

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I think it’s actually the mkdir that’s the problem. My host (textdrive)  
uses mod\_security. If you’re hosting via Appache you can set up  
particular  
rules to be ignored via the .htaccess file. However, if you’re passing  
through requests to lighttpd you can’t switch it off at a rule level.

Textdrive will allow you to disable it altogether, but I haven’t done  
that  
just yet, as I’m assuming it might be useful, if it doesn’t get in the  
way  
too much. I’ve got round this particular problem by just using English  
instead of code “Create a directory called radiant”, and assuming the  
punter  
is bright enough to work it out!

Cheers,  
Jake.