[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: MacPython 2.1.1c2 install problems

[Jack Jansen]

Tim,
I'm cc-ing the list, in the hope someone there has a clue. Hope you
don't mind...

Recently, Tim Lahey <tjlahey@cgl.uwaterloo.ca> said:
> Jack,
> 
> I tried the active installer under OS X and everything installed fine 
> until I went to
> run ConfigurePythonCarbon. It errored out trying to write to my OS X 
> system folder
> a from :Mac:Lib:macostools.py line 89,
> 	ofp = open(dstfss.as_pathname(),'wb')
> 
> IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied:
> 'OSX:System:Library:CFMSupport:PythonCoreCarbon 2.1.1c2'

Hmm, for some reason on your machine it tries to install
PythonCoreCarbon in the system domain (xxx:System:Library:CFMSupport)
in stead of in the local machine domain (xxx:Library:CFMSupport).

That you don't have write permission in the system domain is to be
expected: the stuff in here is supposed to be modified only by Apple,
and they "enforce" that by not having the root user enabled by
default.

The question is: why does it try to install in the system domain? Hmm,
what ConfigurePython tries to do is first
   FindFolder(kLocalDomain, kSharedLibrariesFolderType, 1)
and if that fails it tries again with kOnSystemDisk as the first
parameter. The third parameter is the "create if it doesn't exist"
option.

So, what happens to you could happen if (a) you don't have a
/Library/CFMSupport and (b) you don't have the permission to create
one.

Do you have administrator permissions? For this release of MacPython
you need that, and I must say I never tested what happens if you
don't, but it could well be this. I'll try so later tonight.
--
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