[Pdx-pm] I think the definition of failsafe is that things should do the safe thing if they fail

Eric Wilhelm scratchcomputing at gmail.com
Thu Oct 18 11:16:13 PDT 2007


# from Michael G Schwern
# on Thursday 18 October 2007 10:57:

>> Note Abigail's method of using a dedicated, unprivileged user to
>> install code from CPAN.  Then the only files at risk are your perl
>> tree.
>
>That's troublesome because you then have to have different bin and man
> paths and make sure PATH and MANPATH are all set up and oh god the
> burning.

Well, yeah.  Too bad the install is done via `make install`.  Perhaps 
adding a stow step to cpan.pm or something would make that easier.

>You don't have to go that far.  CPAN.pm is perfectly capable of
> sudo'ing the install phase.

Running cpan as a dedicated user with an sudo on the install phase would 
still be a good idea.  Luckily, the install action is usually pretty 
safe.  Losing your $HOME directory while running a test suite would 
sort of suck.

--Eric
-- 
Moving pianos is dangerous.
Moving pianos are dangerous.
Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
---------------------------------------------------
    http://scratchcomputing.com
---------------------------------------------------


More information about the Pdx-pm-list mailing list