If Drupal does not require GD2 to function, then why does it complain about its absence?

Posted by brianshumate on September 19, 2009 at 12:27pm

Issue Summary

The title asks it all, really.

I do not wish to use the PHP GD library on my servers, and instead have chosen for various valid reasons, to use ImageMagick. Since Drupal does not absolutely require GD to function, I'd prefer to not encounter this situation:

What are the steps required to reproduce the bug?

I log into any one of my Drupal websites
I see a warning message:
- One or more problems were detected with your Drupal installation. Check the status report for more information.
I click the status report link
Drupal proceeds to display another warning message:
- GD library Not installed
  The GD library for PHP is missing or outdated. Please check the PHP image documentation for information on how to correct this.

What behavior were you expecting?

I log into any one of my Drupal websites
I proceed to enjoy working with said Drupal website
If feeling particularly cheerful, I say or think something along the lines of, "I $term_of_endearment you, Drupal."

What happened instead?

I log into any one of my Drupal websites
Drupal complains incessantly and in a most dramatic manner (see attached screenshot), about said Drupal website's lack of a library that is not even required for it to function.
If feeling particularly grumpy, I yell or think something along the lines of, "Drupal, here's a warning for you! How would you like to be $obscene_adverb . $destructive_command?!"

Can we please stop warning about missing non-essential libraries like this?

Thanks!

Attachment	Size	Status	Test result	Operations
Screen shot 2009-09-19 at 7.42.28 AM.png	36.82 KB	Ignored: Check issue status.	None	None

Comments

#1

Posted by brianshumate on September 19, 2009 at 12:52pm

Status:

active

» closed (fixed)

Nevermind... this is PEBKAC. :-(

#2

Posted by brianshumate on September 27, 2009 at 2:25pm

Title:	If Drupal does not require PHP GD to function, why does it complain about its absence?	» If ImageAPI does not require PHP GD2 to function, why does it complain about its absence?
Project:	Drupal core	» ImageAPI
Version:	6.14	» 6.x-1.6
Component:	user interface text	» User interface
Status:	closed (fixed)	» active

OK.

After some additional testing. this is not a case of PEBKAC. ;-) It appears to be an issue with ImageAPI and possibly because GD2 is sort of the expected image library.

If I choose to use one toolkit over the other, I shouldn't have to deal with warnings about the other being unavailable, right? I notice that ImageAPI does not complain about the absence of ImageMagick the same way it does about the absence of GD2.

If GD2 is not required by Drupal core, or any other module I'm using, then there should be no warnings. I do not have ImageAPI GD2 selected in the module list, either.

Screen shots of the warning and my current ImageAPI / ImageCache settings are attached.

This is Drupal 6.14.

Attachment	Size	Status	Test result	Operations
Screen shot 2009-09-27 at 10.20.26 AM.png	67.91 KB	Ignored: Check issue status.	None	None

#3

Posted by drewish on May 1, 2010 at 1:09am

Status:

active

» closed (works as designed)

It's actually Drupal core that's complaining. ImageAPI only checks if the imageapi_gd module is installed.

#4

Posted by brianshumate on May 23, 2010 at 2:08am

Title:	If ImageAPI does not require PHP GD2 to function, why does it complain about its absence?	» If Drupal does not require GD2 to function, then why does it complain about its absence?
Project:	ImageAPI	» Drupal core
Version:	6.x-1.6	» 6.16
Component:	User interface	» image system

*sigh*

I had originally suspected that it was indeed Drupal core- thanks for confirming my original suspicion.

Oh well, I give up on trying to understand something as odd as this.