[ python-Bugs-1234850 ] Admin privs required for Windows?

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Bugs item #1234850, was opened at 2005-07-08 11:52
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by bsherwood
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Category: Distutils
Group: Python 2.3
Status: Closed
Resolution: Fixed
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Tim Peters (tim_one)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Admin privs required for Windows?

Initial Comment:
Over in ZopeLand, there's a complaint that the ZODB 
Windows installer requires admin privileges (or 
something like that):

    http://www.zope.org/Collectors/Zope/1838

The installer was produced using Python 2.3.5, via

    python setup.py bdist_wininst

from the root of a ZODB checkout.  Anyone have a 
guess as to what privs it needs that it might not 
have?  The user says they do have permission to write 
into their Python installation directory, so that's 
not it.  The message they get is "You do not seem to 
have sufficient access rights on this machine to 
install this software". 

Status under Python 2.4.1 is unknown.

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Comment By: Bruce Sherwood (bsherwood)
Date: 2005-07-14 22:25

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Debbie Carraway in IT at NCSU gives this important analysis
(she discovered this in the context of using the installer
for VPython, which looks for Python 2.4 in
HKLM\Software\Python\PythonCore\2.4\InstallPath; this used
to work with Python 2.3):

The problem is with the Python 2.4.1 installer. Python will
put the InstallPath registry setting (which indicates where
Python is installed)  under HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE under some circumstances:
 (1) if you are not a member of the Administrators group
 (2) if you choose "Install for Just Me" rather than
"Install for All Users",
 (3) if you automate the Python install using "msiexec.exe
/i python-2.4.1.msi /q". The /q (quiet) switch causes
different behavior than the defaults with a manual install
("msiexec.exe /i python-2.4.1.msi").

This is a mistake in the Python installer. The path to an
installed application always belongs under HKLM, because the
path to installed software is a machine-specific setting. If
the path is in HKCU, the InstallPath setting can follow a
user to a machine where Python is not installed. 

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Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2005-07-11 12:55

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The message comes from
PC\bdist_wininst\install.c:OpenLogFile, when attempting to
write to Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.
Whether this goes to HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
apparently depends on whether Python was installed per-user
or per-machine.

In the 2.4.1 version, in CheckRootKey, there is a
HasLocalMachinePrivs function. Mark Hammond added this in
install.c 1.6 in response to #555812 and #555810, so I'm
declaring this bug fixed.

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Comment By: Tim Peters (tim_one)
Date: 2005-07-08 14:59

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Bug 1232947 is about installing Python itself.  This one is 
about installing a 3rd-party package that happens to use 
Python (a pre-existing Python), using a Windows installer 
created by Python's distutils package.  It's unlikely the bugs 
have anything in common.

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Comment By: Patrick Vrijlandt (pvrijlandt)
Date: 2005-07-08 14:48

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Did you see bug # 1232947? It provides documentation of 
another failing non-admin install. (2.4.1).


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Comment By: Tim Peters (tim_one)
Date: 2005-07-08 13:11

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You should be able to try 2.4.  The Python installer includes 
msvcr71.dll, and should install it into the Python directory 
(instead of into a system directory) is you do a "install just 
for me" (as opposed to "all users") install.

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Comment By: Alex (hairypalm)
Date: 2005-07-08 12:36

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I am the original "complainant".  I cannot try python 2.4 
install package because it requires MSVCR71.dll.  I 
am "locked down" at work and cannot write files except to 
my own user area.  I am also prevented from writing to some 
areas of the registry.

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