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

[John Ralls]

> On Jun 12, 2021, at 12:59 AM, Chris Good <goodchris96 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> 
> Sent: Thursday, 10 June 2021 1:14 PM
> To: Chris Good <goodchris96 at gmail.com>
> Cc: gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: [GNC-dev] Does gnc-fq-update need administrative privilege on
> Windows or MacOS or Linux?
> 
>> 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
> 
> Hi John, thanks for your answer.
> 
> I did some testing in Windows 10 running gnc-fq-update and it worked fine
> reinstalling Date::Manip without "Run as administrator" 
> and also did not ask for permission via a "User Access Control" dialog. I
> think this is because it puts everything in C:\Strawberry and this directory
> (and all subdirectories as far as a I can see in a quick check)  is created
> with Modify, Read & execute, List folder contents, Read and Write permission
> for the Authenticated Users group.
> 
> Running "Install Online Price Retrieval for GnuCash" runs Perl.msi to
> install perl which does invoke a "User Access Control" dialog.
> 
> I assume your comment about /Library/Perl refers to macOS.

It does.

Regards,
John Ralls