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[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #53515] Running Octave GUI as "sudo" creates a


From: Dan Sebald
Subject: [Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #53515] Running Octave GUI as "sudo" creates a settings file owned by root
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2018 13:19:05 -0400 (EDT)
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:55.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/55.0

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53515>

                 Summary: Running Octave GUI as "sudo" creates a settings file
owned by root
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: sebald
            Submitted on: Thu 29 Mar 2018 05:19:04 PM UTC
                Category: GUI
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Missed Error or Warning
                  Status: None
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: 
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: dev
        Operating System: Any

    _______________________________________________________

Details:

I was testing some installation issues (Documentation QHC) and ran Octave
using "sudo" to see if the feature would work correctly and where a hidden
directory goes to.  In the process, I discovered that doing this writes a
settings file that is owned by root:


address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ ls -la
/home/sebald/.config/octave/qt-settings -l
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 46722 Mar 29 12:01
/home/sebald/.config/octave/qt-settings


Subsequently, on a follow up non-sudo launch Octave complains


Octave Critical Error

The settings file
/home/sebald/.config/octave/qt-settings
does not exist and can not be created.
Make sure you have read and write permissions to
/home/sebald/.config/octave

Octave GUI must be closed now.


Two things about this are

1) This shouldn't be a critical error, but perhaps put up a warning dialog
that settings will be default (can't read) and will not be saved (can't
write).  However, I know that this is a critical error, because Octave GUI
docked-widget/float-window will use the settings file as an intermediate
storage area.  Hence, Octave GUI can't possibly function.  On the other hand,
I've recently created a changeset

https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53276

that doesn't use the settings as in intermediate (i.e., save then read), but
instead only saves to settings and keeps an internal record of both docked and
float positions.

2) There should be special care about writing settings files that are of
different ownership than the original settings file.  Either don't overwrite,
or put up a dialog box at exit (or wherever) warning about the overwrite and
whether Octave should do so.




    _______________________________________________________

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  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?53515>

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