[texworks] SCRIPTING: on linux say Ubuntu - script write priveledges

[Stefan Löffler]

Hi,

On 2011-05-24 03:01, Paul A Norman wrote:
> Appreciate any info please from Linux user(s) on some basic questions.
>
> For reference I'm looking at Ubuntu 11.04.

Welcome to the Linux world :).

> After setting the ppa required
> https://launchpad.net/~texworks/+archive/ppa, Using sudo apt-get
> install stuff to setup TeXworks 0.5 ver813 (works really nicely), when
> a user runs a Tw script from TeXworks, can the script automatically
> (if Tw's preferences permissions are already set) write/read to
> subdirectories of the Tw script's own directory?

Yes, that should be possible in the same way as on the other OSs by default.
<random rambling>
Of course, the user must have read/write permissions to the files and
directories in question. This is required by Linux independent of Tw.
Since, by default, the resources are put under the user's home
directory, this shouldn't be a problem. Note, though, that resources
provided by Tw typically are installed read-only (on my machine,
anyway). I haven't investigated this yet, as it is not a problem for me
(any noone else has complained yet ;)) - you wouldn't want to overwrite
"official" files, anyway, would you?
</random rambling>

> Also I have found that when logged in under the user name established
> during Ubuntu install, running TeXworks form a console produces a
> version that shows the TeXworks menu items in the new Unity top frame,
> however if I start TeXworks as sudo TeXworks I get a more classical
> looking (similar to Windows) appearance of TeXworks layout with the Tw
> menus in the program's own frame. What should I make of that please?

Interesting, I haven't noticed this before, but I can confirm it. Is
there a special reason to run Tw with sudo (normally, one wouldn't; btw,
GUI applications should be run with gksudo, but this doesn't change the
effect)?
I tried with other Qt/KDE applications as well (kcalc, kdenlive), and
they exhibit the same problem. So I'd say this is a problem with the
interaction Qt-unity as the root user. Did you try creating a new user
(different from the one created during installation) and running Tw or
other Qt/KDE apps there?

Cheers,
Stefan