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- At the AGM we formed an ad-hoc documentation working group. - One of our ideas was that we should have a last reviewed date for documentation, so that we can periodically implement a review mechanism (GitHub Actions posts to Slack for a regular documentation outdatedness check?) to track how old docs are and ensure they're still relevant. - This is a first step towards that goal, by adding a `last_review_date` to the metadata of all docs with a date of earlier than Homebrew's inception because everything needs reviewing so that we start from a good base!
146 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
146 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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last_review_date: "1970-01-01"
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---
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# Gems, Eggs and Perl Modules
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On a fresh macOS installation there are two empty directories for
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add-ons available to all users:
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* `/Library/Ruby`
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* `/Library/Perl`
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You need sudo to install to these like so: `sudo gem install`
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or `sudo cpan -i`.
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## Python packages (eggs) without sudo using system Python
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An option to avoid sudo is to use an access control list. For example:
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```sh
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chmod +a 'user:<YOUR_NAME_HERE> allow add_subdirectory,add_file,delete_child,directory_inherit' /Library/Python/3.y/site-packages
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```
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will let you add packages to Python 3.y as yourself, which
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is probably safer than changing the group ownership of the directory.
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### So why was I using sudo?
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Habit maybe?
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One reason is executables go in `/usr/local/bin`. Usually this isn’t a
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writable location. But if you installed Homebrew as we recommend on macOS Intel,
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`/usr/local` will be writable without sudo. So now you are good to
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install the development tools you need without risking the use of sudo.
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### An alternative package path
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_This is only recommended if you **don't** use a brewed Python._
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On macOS, any Python version X.Y [also searches in
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`~/Library/Python/X.Y/lib/python/site-packages` for
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modules](https://docs.python.org/2/install/index.html#alternate-installation-the-user-scheme).
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That path might not yet exist, but you can create it:
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```sh
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mkdir -p ~/Library/Python/2.7/lib/python/site-packages
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```
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To teach `easy_install` and `pip` to install there, either use the
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`--user` switch or create a `~/.pydistutils.cfg` file with the
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following content:
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[install]
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install_lib = ~/Library/Python/$py_version_short/lib/python/site-packages
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### Using virtualenv (with system Python)
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[Virtualenv](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/) ships `pip` and
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creates isolated Python environments with separate `site-packages`,
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which therefore don’t need sudo.
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## Rubygems without sudo
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_This is only recommended if you **don't** use rbenv or RVM._
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Brewed Ruby installs executables to `$(brew --prefix ruby)/bin`
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without sudo. You should add this to your path. See the caveats in the
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`ruby` formula for up-to-date information.
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### With system Ruby
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To make Ruby install to `/usr/local`, we need to add
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`gem: -n/usr/local/bin` to your `~/.gemrc`. It’s YAML, so do it manually
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or use this:
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```sh
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echo "gem: -n/usr/local/bin" >> ~/.gemrc
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```
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**However, all versions of RubyGems before 1.3.6 are buggy** and ignore
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the above setting. Sadly a fresh install of Snow Leopard comes with
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1.3.5. Currently the only known way to get around this is to upgrade
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rubygems as root:
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```sh
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sudo gem update --system
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```
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### An alternative gem path
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Just install everything into the Homebrew prefix like this:
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```sh
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echo "export GEM_HOME=\"$(brew --prefix)\"" >> ~/.bashrc
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```
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### It doesn’t work! I get some “permissions” error when I try to install stuff
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_Note that you may not want to do this, since Apple has decided it
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is not a good default._
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If you ever did a `sudo gem`, etc. before then a lot of files will have
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been created owned by root. Fix with:
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```sh
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sudo chown -R $(whoami) /Library/Ruby/* /Library/Perl/* /Library/Python/*
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```
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## Perl CPAN modules without sudo
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The Perl module `local::lib` works similarly to rbenv/RVM (although for
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modules only, not Perl installations). A simple solution that only
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pollutes your `/Library/Perl` a little is to install
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[`local::lib`](https://metacpan.org/pod/local::lib) with sudo:
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```sh
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sudo cpan local::lib
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```
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Note that this will install some other dependencies like `Module::Install`.
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Then put the appropriate incantation in your shell’s startup, e.g. for
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`.profile` you'd insert the below; for others see the
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[`local::lib`](https://metacpan.org/pod/local::lib) docs.
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```sh
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eval "$(perl -I$HOME/perl5/lib/perl5 -Mlocal::lib)"
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```
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Now (after you restart your shell) `cpan` or `perl -MCPAN -eshell` etc.
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will install modules and binaries in `~/perl5` and the relevant
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subdirectories will be in your `PATH` and `PERL5LIB`.
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### Avoiding sudo altogether for Perl
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If you don’t even want to (or can’t) use sudo for bootstrapping
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`local::lib`, just manually install `local::lib` in
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`~/perl5` and add the relevant path to `PERL5LIB` before the `.bashrc` eval incantation.
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Another alternative is to use `perlbrew` to install a separate copy of Perl in your home directory, or wherever you like:
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```sh
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curl -L https://install.perlbrew.pl | bash
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perlbrew install perl-5.16.2
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echo ".~/perl5/perlbrew/etc/bashrc" >> ~/.bashrc
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```
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