[plt-scheme] Why is the PLaneT cache per-user?

Well, I didn't think of it in such a sinister light, but that's  
basically it. When a normal user requires something from planet,  
there's got to be somewhere to put the file. It's reasonable to  
assume that a user can write into his/her own space, but it's not  
reasonable to assume that same user can write to the place where PLT  
Scheme is installed. (Actually IIRC the very first implementation was  
per-installation, but this issue pretty much made it useless until I  
changed it to behave in roughly the way it behaves now.)

-jacob


On Feb 4, 2006, at 9:46 PM, Carl Eastlund wrote:

> On 2/4/06, Doug Orleans <dougorleans at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Perhaps this is a silly question, but...
>>
>> Why are PLaneT files cached per user rather than per PLT  
>> installation?
>> If multiple users require the same PLaneT package, why not share  
>> the files?
>
> I'm not a PLaneT implementer, so I don't know for sure.  But I would
> guess it's all about permissions.  Unless DrScheme were to always run
> as a superuser, the only way for PLaneT caches to be shared is if they
> were all globally writable.  That would be a big security hole: code
> everyone uses, which anyone can write to, would be very easy to
> sabotage.
>
> --
> Carl Eastlund
> "Cynical, but technically correct."
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