Creation of folder from Ruby on Mac

jeff hammond

yeah.. i don't know..

the question by fredo is

can you create a folder on mac via ruby or not?

@fredo.. can you make a little script or snippet to test with?

driven

can you create a folder on mac via ruby or not?

Yes, using the ruby snippet in my last post [ saved as a .rb file ], I can create both a Folder and a file from a ruby script in the Plugins folder.

@Jeff it should work on yours as well.

@Fredo, is there any pattern to what's failing?

john

TIG

I don't understand Fredo's issues here...
I already make/use different 'personal subfolders' on PC AND MAC to store temporary files, AND also permanent files: they are automatically made for each User in straightforward Ruby Code.
I gave detailed examples in my earlier post - lifted almost verbatim from the SCF tools loader .rb, I just edited out some module specific Constants...
The 'Plugin Store. for example has ..Local/Temp/SCF/ PC||MAC ...xxx/T/SCF/ folders to take the temporary RBZ files etc during auto-install processing and the ..Local/SCF/ PC||MAC ...xxx/SCF/ folders to take the 'encrypted login cookie' that's used so you don't have to login with every visit !

fredo6

All I am trying to figure out is an alternate location where to create the DEFPARAM_Dir folder, since for some Mac users, it seems not to work in the SU Plugins area on Mac.

I was just wondering is the Mac has some sophisticated security whereby certain file operations are prohibited from scripts, even if you can perform them manually (like create a folder).

If not, then we are left with the normal access rules and I imagine that the /users rootpath is normally enabled for writing.

Fredo

PS: thanks to the contributors. I have to ask as I don't have a Mac currently.

driven

@fredo6 said:

All I am trying to figure out is an alternate location where to create the DEFPARAM_Dir folder, since for some Mac users, it seems not to work in the SU Plugins area on Mac.

Basically, if you can't write to there, it's hard to find somewhere else with 'lesser' permissions.
I think it will work for more people where it is, as far as I can find, this should only be an issue on 'Guest Accounts' that have file access restrictions enabled by an administrator. [maybe Corporations/Uni's etc..]
You can test for 'admin' quite easily [code below] and use a MB or similar for those without them...

@unknownuser said:

I was just wondering is the Mac has some sophisticated security whereby certain file operations are prohibited from scripts, even if you can perform them manually (like create a folder).

It has lots, but for the majority of users, as long as it's in the 'User' domain it's actually a lot more complicated to limit access then allow it. App SandBoxing may come into play in a few cases.

@unknownuser said:

If not, then we are left with the normal access rules and I imagine that the /users rootpath is normally enabled for writing.

I think you should go with that assumption, and maybe add some simple test to you logfile RE:admin

always happy to help keep your plugins working on macs

john

This checks I'm an admin and writes to your folder from wherever I load your folder from.
not the best coding, but works from a variety of accounts that I have access to.

def isAdmin
  user = %x( whoami ).chomp!
  admins = %x( dscl . read /Groups/admin GroupMembership ).chomp!
  iSadmin = (admins.scan user) == user.to_a
end

begin
  home = (File.dirname(__FILE__))
  test_dir = home + "/DEFPARAM_Dir"
 if not FileTest.writable_real? test_dir
  UI.messagebox("You need an administrator to modify defaults!") if  not isAdmin
  else
  path = File.join( test_dir, "/from_v2013_plugins_file")
  file = File.open(path, "w")
  file.write( Time.now.to_s )
  end #if
rescue
  #some error occur, dir not writable etc.
ensure
  file.close unless file == nil
end

fredo6

@driven

Thanks very much.
Are you also able to create the directory, not just to write files?

Fredo

driven

Yes


  Dir.mkdir(test_dir) unless FileTest.exists?(test_dir)

works fine,
john

TIG

@driven said:

Yes

Dir.mkdir(test_dir) unless FileTest.exists?(test_dir)

works fine,

john
That is the normal way to test if a folder/file exists and then if not you make it etc BUT I recommend an alternative...
On a PC with the current Ruby version operations like File.exist? etc can report 'false' even when it does exists, consequently causing an error when you try to make it and it's there ! - this occurs when the path contains non-ASCII characters - which is possible in user-names in the path to the Temp folder etc. I think MACs are more tolerant of characters? BUT we want a 'cross-platform' solution...
The simplest way is to always make it, trapping the error if it fails because it exists !

begin;Dir.mkdir(test_dir);rescue;p'Dir exists';end

I just added the p 'puts' so you can see what happens in the RC...

driven

@TIG,
that works here as well, but it doesn't really tell you why it's failed.

can further checks be done in the 'rescue' to pin-point any issue
e.g

  
  UI.messagebox("Houston, we have a problem") if not FileTest.writable_real? test_dir
  UI.messagebox("You are not an administrator on this computer") if  not isAdmin?

which brings up a few questions, is there a PC equiv. for?

def isAdmin?
  user = %x( whoami ).chomp!
  admins = %x( dscl . read /Groups/admin GroupMembership ).chomp!
  iSadmin = (admins.scan user)
 iSadmin == user.to_a
end

is FileTest.writable_real? any more reliable on a PC?

john

TIG

You normally won't need to know why it failed - of course you can puts the error message into the RC etc BUT why would a users temp folder tree limit writability anyway - it's where apps etc store their temp files ?
All my snippet was doing was avoiding the PC issue - where File.exist? returns 'false' when the file or folder actually exists, but there are non-ASCII characters in its path - like a 'usér-name'.
There's no other way of ensuring you 'make' the missing file / folder otherwise...
If File.exist? says 'false', BUT it really exists then Dir.mkdir will fail as you can't make a directory if it already exists, so isn't it best to always try and make it ?

driven

@tig said:

You normally won't need to know why it failed

I was thinking more for a standalone debug script to try and find why these edge cases are failing.

john