[Python-Dev] PEP: per user site-packages directory

[Gregory P. Smith]

On 1/13/08, Christian Heimes <lists at cheimes.de> wrote:
>
> Gregory P. Smith wrote:
> > My main suggestion was going to be the ability to turn it off as you
> already
> > mentioned.  However, please consider leaving it off by default to avoid
> > problems for installed python scripts importing user supplied code.  For
> > shared hosting environments where this becomes really useful users can
> > easily add the -s (or whatever flag is chosen) to their programs
> > themselves.  I don't know what that'd mean on windows where #! lines
> don't
> > exist.  Yet another file extension to imply the flag (yuck)?  A .cmd
> wrapper
> > script to run python with the flag (ugh)?
>
> So you prefer to make the per use site-package directory an opt-in
> option? I prefer it as an opt-out option. It's enabled by default,
> unless the user disables the feature with -s.
>
> I'm not sure how to solve the problem on Windows. IMHO the feature
> should be enabled on Windows at least but I like to keep it enabled on
> all systems. The PEP doesn't add a new attack vector. The problem also
> exist with PYTHONPATH. Paranoid programs should start with -E -s anyway
> and paranoid system administrators can switch a flag in site.py:


Good point, leave it on by default.

# Enable per user site-packages directory
> # set it to False to disable the feature or True to force the feature
> ENABLE_USER_SITE = None
>
> If we disable the feature by default it won't be available for a lot of
> users.
>
> > For security reasons we also need it disabled when the getuid() !=
> geteuid()
> > to avoid user supplied code being executed as another user.  Defaulting
> to
> > disabled would mean that security could be left up to the end user to
> mess
> > up.  (many systems do not allow setuid #! scripts but this issue would
> still
> > apply to things run under sudo)
>
> It sounds like a reasonable and easy implementable idea, at least on
> Unix. Windows doesn't have getuid() and geteuid(). On the other hand
> Windows doesn't have the suid bit, too.
>
> I also tried to check if os.stat(__main__.__file__).st_uid ==
> os.getuid() but the real __main__ is not available in site.py. It's
> loaded and assigned much later.


Is sys.argv[0] available at that point?
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