should setup.py do chmod +x on the scripts in /bin? [was: fortune is already taken on some unixy systems!]

[WesleyAC]

I was testing all of the commands, and found that fortune on my system runs /bin/fortune as opposed to RED_SPIDER_ROOT/bin/fortune.

Sadly, the only way to fix this would be to rename fortune to something else. Perhaps xkcd-fortune?

Is it worth the rename to fix this for the (probably small) number of users who have fortune installed?

[lramati]

We could also consider "overwriting" it for the duration of shell usage by having RED_SPIDER_ROOT/bin/ come before /bin/ in rsshell's PATH variable (I think) but I'm not sure how to do this

[jgonggrijp]

Actually $RED_SPIDER_ROOT/bin is already prepended to PATH, so if you're running fortune from within rsshell you should get the RSP version. :-)

Could you check that, @WesleyAC?

[WesleyAC]

@jgonggrijp, nope. Running fortune from rsshell gets me the unix version.

[lramati]

What if we take this as an opportunity to have the shell be a little more intelligent? I suggest the following changes:

• trsp commands must being with rs (this is arbitrary and totally modifyable)
• rsshell does NOT add RED_SPIDER_ROOT/bin/ to $PATH.
• Calling cmd from within rsshell has if first search for rscmd in that directory. If found, it calls it. Otherwise, it forwards the call as is to the shell.
• Alternatively, RED_SPIDER_ROOT/bin/ IS added to the path.
  • Assuming its easier to implement, rsshell could then try to call rscmd without the search, and failing that, call cmd.
  • If this is done permanently, and $RED_SPIDER_ROOT is also permanently added to the host environment, there would always be direct (albeit possibly broken) access to all trsp commands at all times, if you manually added rs to the beginning.
• a call to rsshell cmd -flags from anywhere should be identical to calling rsshell; cmd -flags; exit, where ; represents running the command, for a not broken alternative to the last suggestion.

[jgonggrijp]

@WesleyAC what if you first do chmod +x $RED_SPIDER_ROOT/bin/fortune?

[WesleyAC]

@jgonggrijp It works if I chmod +x first. Should setup.py chmod +x $RED_SPIDER_ROOT/bin/* by default?

[jgonggrijp]

Perhaps. So far setup.py was just assuming that the executable_scripts in /bin already had the execution bit set and so far fortune seems to have been the only (stubborn) exception. I just put it back again on the master branch. But perhaps it's unreasonable to make this assumption and then yes, setup.py should do it (on unixy systems).

Do you think the assumption that executable_scripts have the execution bit set is reasonable?

[lramati]

I'm going to go with no, because it will get messy with copies to and from flashdrives and other such media and between OSes. Better to have the setup assume nothing. If it resets the bit nothing bad happens. If it forgets to set the bit then ugly

[WesleyAC]

I agree with @firerogue, it's better to set it twice than not all.

[jgonggrijp]

Done. Python's os.chmod is a bit cumbersome because it doesn't let you just update one bit (you have (re)set all of them) so setup.py will only touch the permissions if a script in /bin is not executable.