Permissions for gnc-fq-update

[Wm]

On 16/02/2018 04:07, David T. via gnucash-devel wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> In my quixotic quest to try and get quote retrieval working again on my Mac, I’ve been looking at ways to remove and reload all the Perl underlying Finance::Quote. (As John noted to me recently, there isn’t any uninstall command in CPAN, unfortunately). In this process, I ran into numerous discussions online that strongly recommend *against* invoking CPAN with root privileges for reasons I don’t quite understand [beyond the generic ‘don’t run things as root’], and with solutions I also don’t quite understand. My level of understanding notwithstanding, the advice is unambiguous.

CPAN isn't the same as running all of perl [1]

there are certainly bits of perl and CPAN that you should not allow on 
your system unless you really, really know what you are doing.  perl is 
one of the original system scripting languages after all.

> In the course of this process, I opened up gnc-fq-update, and see immediately that it wants CPAN run with root access. Is this necessary? Given what I’ve read online, is this advised?
> 
> I ask out of curiousity, and to learn more.

perl is an obscure vector for harm in these modern times.

it is sooo last century almost no-one bothers writing bad code for it :0

if the only thing you are using perl for is F::Q you are almost 
certainly safe.

[1] I don't think anyone sensible has all of perl in the same way as I 
don't think anyone has all of linux, etc.  there is just too much of it.

-- 
Wm