[GNC] Finance::Quote failed to initialize

[Bruce Schuck]

On 10/5/24 5:39 PM, John Ralls wrote:

> As I explained in my previous, cpan needs to write to /Library/
> Perl/3.40/, a system directory, so it need to be run with sudo. Of
> course doing that causes the ownership of ~/.cpan to be root.

John,

I *know* how CPAN works. Typically the default MyConfig.pm 
(~/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm) will use sudo for the 
"make_install_make_command" and "mbuild_install_build_command" commands. 
This allows cpan to write to the system directories needed. But a user's 
~/.cpan tree should always be writable by the user. Running "sudo cpan 
..." ends up making a mess of user's cpan directory and leaves files and 
directories the user cannot write to, and BF's issue trying to run "cpan 
Finance::Quote" is an example. I assumed the install FQ tool supplied 
with GnuCash did not run "sudo cpan" and instead depended on sudo being 
called to execute the install. I can assure you, most long time Perl 
monks would chastise those who execute "sudo cpan".

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9409888/when-using-cpan-in-linux-ubuntu-should-i-run-it-using-sudo-as-root-or-as-my-de

I'm guessing the FQ install tool uses "sudo cpan" to avoid issues where 
users may have changed their cpan config from the default. But again, 
this could lead to other problems. Example if someone had set their cpan 
config to build into $PERL5LIB, typically under their $HOME and done to 
avoid needing root privs. Running "sudo cpan ..." in that case would 
install root owned modules in a directory space the user expects to own 
everything underneath.