[PATCH v4 01/16] add util/search-path.{c, h} to test for executables in $PATH

Daniel Kahn Gillmor dkg at fifthhorseman.net
Fri Aug 12 11:46:38 PDT 2016


On Fri 2016-08-12 03:38:53 -0400, David Bremner wrote:
> Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg at fifthhorseman.net> writes:
>
>>> Should we distinguish between relative and absolute paths here?  I can't
>>> think of any security implications, but I'm wondering if a relative path
>>> is likely just a user error.
>>
>> I don't think a relative path is necessarily a user error.  I certainly
>> use relative paths myself from time to time.
>
> As configuration values? That seems quite fragile, since it depends on
> the current working directory when notmuch is run.

rarely!  but sometimes i do it because i'm testing things in strange
ways, and it can be a bit frustrating to have a tool second-guess me
when it seems like i ought to be able to drop the same string i'm using
on the command line into the configuration.

I don't feel strongly, though.  if you want to say that bare words found
in the $PATH and absolute filenames (starting with /) are fine in the
notmuch config but relative paths are not, i'd be ok with that :)

        --dkg


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