[GNC-dev] Does gnc-fq-update need administrative privilege on Windows or MacOS or Linux?

[John Ralls]

> On Jun 9, 2021, at 12:57 AM, Chris Good <goodchris96 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Online_Quotes#Helper_Scripts says
> 
> 
> 
> gnc-fq-update
> 
> This program installs or updates the Finance::Quote software module along
> with its dependencies. This program normally needs superuser or
> administrative privileges to succeed.
> 
> 
> 
> What does "normally" mean?
> 
> 
> 
> It is my recollection that gnc-fq-update in Windows did NOT need to be run
> as an administrator.
> 
> Maybe that is because my Windows user is an administrator?
> 
> Can anyone throw any light on this?

Maybe before Windows 10 that was true, but Windows 10 tightened up security a lot and that trend has continued in the ~6 years since the original Win10 release. Nowadays any installation or modification of software code requires a UAE so you must run gnc-fq-update from an admin account and answer yes to the UAE dialog.

It's probably possible to get cpan to run in user space but even though it writes its build directory in ~/.cpan it wants to put the modules in /Library/Perl and so requires sudo.

Regards,
John Ralls