ui_auth.session_timeout config should allow standard duration formats

[richvdh]

most durations in the config can be specified in terms of number of seconds/hours/etc (search for parse_duration). ui_auth.session_timeout seems to have missed the memo.

[richvdh]

related: #5584 (comment)

[arya2331]

Hey @richvdh, I wanted to work on this issue. Can I go ahead? How can I start with this?

[richvdh]

yes, absolutely. We welcome any contributions - no need to ask permission!

To get started, I suggest you read through https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/develop/CONTRIBUTING.md if you haven't already, and get yourself a copy of Synapse running on your development machine. Then just find where this setting is parsed, and update the parsing code to allow more duration formats!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in #synapse-dev:matrix.org.

[arya2331]

@richvdh what more duration formats are to be allowed in parse-duration?

[richvdh]

parse_duration itself is fine. The problem is that it's not being called for ui_auth.session_timeout.

[arya2331]

@richvdh I have written the code for calling parse_duartion for ui_auth.session_timeout. Is that ok? and how should I test it?

[richvdh]

To test it:

• do the existing unit tests pass?
• you could try manually configuring Synapse with different duration formats and checking that it starts ok
• you could add a new AuthConfigTestCase that checks the setting is parsed correctly (look at tests.config.test_ratelimiting.RatelimitConfigTestCase for an example of testing config parsing)
• you could also maybe update tests.rest.client.v2_alpha.test_auth.UIAuthTests.test_can_reuse_session to use a formatted duration for session_timeout instead of an integer.

[arya2331]

@richvdh all existing unit tests passed and I am all set to raise a PR. Now I have a doubt, should I push only changes related to calling parse_duration or also push changes for `tests.rest.client.v2_alpha.test_auth.UIAuthTests.test_can_reuse_session'.

[clokep]

@richvdh all existing unit tests passed and I am all set to raise a PR. Now I have a doubt, should I push only changes related to calling parse_duration or also push changes for `tests.rest.client.v2_alpha.test_auth.UIAuthTests.test_can_reuse_session'.

You'll want to push both changes so that we can test the new code.

[clokep]

Fixed by #9426.