Re: Feature Request: Set Output Directory

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

On 1/13/2014 4:24 AM, Thangalin wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Summary: If the --result parameter includes a path then ConTeXt should
> assume that that directory is writable thus read/write its temporary
> flies at that location instead of the current working directory (CWD).
>
> Consider the following three accounts:
>
> - ConTeXt installation account (e.g., "context")
> - Web server account (e.g., "web")
> - Application account (e.g., "app")
>
> ConTeXt is run using the web server account. The web server's CWD is
> set to the application directory. For security reasons, the "web"
> account may not create files in the "app" account.
>
> When ConTeXt is called by the "web" account, the CWD is an "app"
> account subdirectory. This subdirectory contains scores of .tex input
> files that control various themes for the final rendered document.
> Many different users, through this web-based application, create
> different content .tex files.
>
> I would like to run context as the web user within the app directory,
> where the input .tex files are located; effectively, as the "web"
> account, this would look like:
>
>    cd /home/app/public_html/book/context
>    source /home/context/bin/context/tex/setuptex
>    /home/context/bin/context/tex/texmf-linux-64/bin/context
> /home/web/users/1/book.tex --result=/home/web/users/1/book.pdf
>
> Since the "web" account cannot write to the "app" directory, this
> causes the following error:
>
> ! I can't write on file `book.log'.
>
> The following is also not possible as the "web" account:
>
>    cd /home/web/users/1/
>    source /home/context/bin/context/tex/setuptex
>    /home/context/bin/context/tex/texmf-linux-64/bin/context book.tex
>
> This fails because the book.tex file includes files that are in the
> "app" directory, which cannot be found. Since the "book.tex" file will
> be in a different directory for every user, a symbolic link in each
> book directory would probably resolve the issue, but that's a bit
> wasteful.
>
> I have updated TEXMFCACHE in texmfcnf.lua to point to
> /var/cache/context/texmf-cache/ (world-writable), but it didn't help.
>
> It seems that ConTeXt assumes write permissions to the current working
> directory, which is not a valid assumption.
>
> Thoughts?

in such case we create a temporary path (that is, the web service does 
that) and run context in a different way, say

mtxrun --path=/data/work/tmp --script context 
--path=/data/resources/mine ....

so, you will run on /data/work/tmp and input files will also be looked 
up opn /data/resources/mine

Hans

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                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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