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Bug 206472 - Can not install to the default location /Application/NetBeans if this folder was created before by the regular installer
Summary: Can not install to the default location /Application/NetBeans if this folder ...
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: installer
Classification: Unclassified
Component: WL bundle (show other bugs)
Version: 7.2
Hardware: PC Mac OS X
: P2 normal (vote)
Assignee: Ondrej Vrabec
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2011-12-16 10:37 UTC by Petr Jiricka
Modified: 2012-06-05 12:12 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: DEFECT
Exception Reporter:

Attachments
Screenshot of the installer error (67.81 KB, image/png)
2011-12-16 10:37 UTC, Petr Jiricka 		Details
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Description Petr Jiricka 2011-12-16 10:37:26 UTC 
Created attachment 114258 [details]
Screenshot of the installer error

1. Install any NetBeans version on the machine, using the native Mac installer. This will create folder /Application/NetBeans
2. Run the WebLogic cobundle installer. 

The installer will display an error message saying that the default installation directory is read-only (see the attached screenshot), and you will not be able to use this location.

This is before the native installer runs as root, and creates the NetBeans directory as follows:
[petrjiricka /Applications]$ ls -la | grep NetBeans
drwxrwxr-x   4 root         wheel    136 Dec  8 11:00 NetBeans

The cobundle installer runs in user mode, and does not have the permission to write to this folder.
Comment 1 Ondrej Vrabec 2011-12-16 11:02:46 UTC 
There may be several ways to "fix" it.
1) Should it be fixed in the bundle, a lot of the installer's infrastructure would need to be rewritten. Not impossible, but would take a lot of work.
2) The native Mac installer (standalone NB installer) could change the owner of /Applications/NetBeans folder. I don't see a point in keeping the owner as 'root'. But that's a question for a Mac user, i don't know the Mac policy regarding the ownership in /Applications folder. This seems most clean to me, however since the change can not be made in 7.1 any more, it would only help in later releases, we cannot fix it for 7.1
3) Can't we just live with that? Is this really a blocker? User can go to commandline and change the ownership manually.
Comment 2 Petr Jiricka 2011-12-16 11:15:25 UTC 
Would it be possible to 
4) Change the ownership of the NetBeans folder by the cobundle installer? I.e. run something like "sudo chown petrjiricka NetBeans" within the cobundle installer?

This should be simpler than doing the proper fix, i.e. 1), right?

> Can't we just live with that? Is this really a blocker?

Probably not a true blocker, but IMO pretty nasty. I see it as a waivable P2.
Comment 3 Jiri Rechtacek 2011-12-16 11:20:49 UTC 
(In reply to comment #2)
> Would it be possible to 
> 4) Change the ownership of the NetBeans folder by the cobundle installer? I.e.
> run something like "sudo chown petrjiricka NetBeans" within the cobundle
> installer?
Not sure it's still possible in recent Mac releases. If so, it might be good enough for such cases. We'll consult with some Mac experts.

> This should be simpler than doing the proper fix, i.e. 1), right?
> 
> > Can't we just live with that? Is this really a blocker?
> 
> Probably not a true blocker, but IMO pretty nasty. I see it as a waivable P2.
Comment 4 Petr Jiricka 2011-12-16 12:49:25 UTC 
> Not sure it's still possible in recent Mac releases.

I tried from the command line on Lion (OS X 10.7) and it helps.
Comment 5 Ondrej Vrabec 2012-06-05 12:12:09 UTC 
reopen if there are any future plans with this kind of bundle