Re: [Groff] Fw: groff and Vista privileges

[Keith Marshall]

On Thursday 07 February 2008 06:34, Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> I think that the program is trying to write intermediate files in the
> C:/ directory.  With Vista, if I otherwise try to write or save to
> this directory a window pops up asking for confirmation that I really
> want to write to this restricted directory.  My confirming "click" is
> only valid if I have Administrator privileges.  I think groff or one
> of it's children may be trying to write to C:/ but is not configured
> to ask for, or not need, permission.  Have you heard or are able to
> contribute something on this issue.

I recall uncovering some problems, when porting various groff components 
to Woe32, related to where Woe32 wants to write temporary files.  IIRC, 
the issue was that, if TMP, TEMP and TMPDIR were not all appropriately 
defined, (and exported, if using a Unixy shell), then Woe32 will try to 
use the root directory of the currently selected device; if you don't 
have write permission there, then you lose.  This affects *all* 
versions of Woe32, not just Vista; it just happens that Vista is even 
more draconian than its predecessors, in assigning privileges for 
ordinary users.

To avoid this issue, I found that the best policy was to ensure that 
*all* three of the above named environment variables were identically 
defined, and pointing to a location you could be sure to have write 
permission.

BTW, this is not the only way in which Vista's draconian privilege 
management bites; a particularly asinine feature is that it deems *any* 
program with a name matching either of the prototypes `*setup*' or 
`*instal*' to require either administrative rights, or an accompanying 
`manifest' file to assign it pseudo-administrative rights, to allow you 
to run it at all!  Thus, programs such as `install' or `install-info' 
lose, when run by an ordinary user, even when the destination is an 
unprivileged location.

Regards,
Keith.