[chuck-users] Question re: installing ChucK on Mac

[Kassen]

Hans;

Sorry, it was a rhetorical agreement, same as "yes". Ambiguous, like in this
> video:
>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JrIYR8jArk
>
>
I really don't think there is any disagreement here, but it can't hurt to be
clear and precise.


>
>  However, sudo is a tool to protect the installation against unauthorised
>> modifications.
>>
>
> Actually, not: it is just a shortcut to become root; try 'sudo -s'.


Quite so, and I believe that unlike with becoming root outright the commands
given with sudo are logged, which can be helpful to trace what went wrong,
if something does.


> Though restrictions can be implemented, that is not so in Mac OS X. In
> addition, when one does a 'sudo', it is valid for a few minutes, which can
> be exploited by malware, by trying every minute if the user has enabled root
> permissions.
>
>
It might be preferable to restrict root access to a single bash session, or
perhaps to require it for every command. System-wide root access sounds a
bit excessive to me, but I don't know what considerations went into that
choice.


> On the other hand, whenever you install something on Mac OS X, and is asked
> for the password, one is in effect doing the same thing as a 'sudo',
> becoming root. So one should never do that unless one trust the software.
>
>
Good advice. I do trust our devs, even though they can be a bit chaotic at
times ;-)
..

>
> FYI: Though it derives from FreeBSD, it is now certified UNIX (Intel 1.5
> and later).
>
>
It is. Of course the main thing that this indicates is that Apple (unlike
some other *nixes) has a budget for certification.

I suspect he has absolutely no knowledge about the console (Terminal).
> Therefore, to start with it, it might be safest to put it into ~/bin/.
>
> It is good with this discussion - ChucK with strange downloading comments,
> is directed to the console-savvy user, in effect shutting others out.
>
>
Yes. There have been a lot of questions about this. Commandline interfaces
do look alien and a bit scary to many. Perhaps we should spend some time on
this in a FAQ, for example with a link to a good online tutorial. We may
also need to update the docs on the mini since the mini really isn't all
that experimental and dangerous any more.

Yours,
Kas.
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