Re: emacsformacos: cannot access mac folders: Documents/Downloads

[Uwe Brauer]

>>> "DM" == Daniel Martín <mardani29@yahoo.es> writes:

> Uwe Brauer <oub@mat.ucm.es> writes:
>> 
>> Not sure, if you compile from master then this problem does not occur it
>> seems to be more of a emacsformacosx thing

> Because of the way this protection feature works and the different ways
> you can build and run an Emacs binary for macOS, the casuistic is a bit
> complex.  I'll try to summarize it:

> If you compile Emacs from the GNU repository on a macOS system, you have
> two ways to run the program:

> a) You can run "make" and then execute "src/emacs".  In this case, Emacs
> will inherit the privacy permissions of your terminal.  If your terminal
> does not already have permission to access personal folders, the first
> time you visit something in a personal folder from Emacs you will see a
> prompt "<Your terminal> would like to access files in your <Personal
folder> folder".

That was I am doing at the moment and face some problems with my init
files, problems I don't face in emacsformacos. Since I was unable to
have my favorite lucid option compiled, I am not sure whether it would
be better to switch to emacsforosox (I will not use the Mac most likely
not for any development but more as backup solution of sorts)



> b) Alternatively, you can run "make install" and then double click on
> the "nextstep/Emacs.app" bundle, or move it to a more permanent
> directory, like /Applications.  This is already the recommended way for
> developers to run the NS native port of Emacs, and the procedure is
> described in detail in "nextstep/INSTALL" from the Emacs repository.
> The first time Emacs needs to visit something in a personal folder it
> will prompt you in a similar way as a), but in the prompt it will show
> as "Emacs" making the request and not your terminal program, provided
> that you executed Emacs from the graphical user interface (for example,
> from Launchpad).


Thanks for pointing this out.

> If you prefer to use the version packaged from emacsformacosx.org, or
> similarly you installed Emacs using a popular package manager like
> Homebrew, there's a crucial difference: Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs
> is *not* a binary, but a Ruby script.  Why do the packagers use a custom
> launcher written in Ruby?  It's a convenience for users so that a single
> download can contain Emacs binaries for all supported macOS versions.
> The Ruby launcher is maintained separately at
> https://github.com/caldwell/build-emacs

> This extra Ruby launcher is a nuisance for granting access to personal
> folders, because a prompt won't appear and you'll need to grant full
> disk access to "/usr/bin/ruby" manually.  There is an open bug report in
> the "build-emacs" project to improve this:
> https://github.com/caldwell/build-emacs/issues/94

> I'm happy to contribute this explanation to the Emacs manuals if you
> want (perhaps to the FAQ?), so that users can understand why they can't
> access their personal folders in Emacs without resorting to do an online
> search which in most cases do not offer the full explanation.

First of all thanks for the detailed explanation which was extremely
helpful.

As far as the FAQ is concerned, I think that is a very good idea, may I
suggest also to include the information of how to add the rugby script
(as you did in a different email)?

Regards

Uwe

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