Ipfs-desktop: Permission denied on macOS (ipfs-on-path feature)

[khinsen]

Please describe what you were doing when this error happened.

1. Download .dmg file
2. Open it and drag IPFS Desktop.app to $HOME/Applications
3. Double-click IPFS Desktop.app

Specifications

• OS: darwin
• IPFS Desktop Version: 0.8.0
• Electron Version: 5.0.2
• Chrome Version: 73.0.3683.121

Error

```
Error: Command failed: /Users/hinsen/Applications/IPFS Desktop.app/Contents/MacOS/IPFS Desktop /Users/hinsen/Applications/IPFS Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/out/late/ipfs-on-path/scripts/install.js --data="/Users/hinsen/Library/Application Support/IPFS Desktop"
fs.js:122
throw err

[khinsen]

At first sight, IPFS seems to work fine in spite of this error. The only function that doesn't work is adding the ipfs binary to the system path. Trying it raises the same error as reported above.

[hacdias]

That's the only information you get from the error?

[khinsen]

First I get this dialog box:

Clicking on "Report the error" is what created this issue. I tried "Open logs", but that merely opens a directory full of funny files in Finder.

[khinsen]

I have a laptop with a near-identical configuration, so I tried installing IPFS Desktop there as well. No error message there. No idea what triggers the error on my desktop machine.

[hacdias]

Yeah, definitely a weird error. I'll try to see if I can pull out something from this log.

[hacdias]

@khinsen @diegotco what are the permissions for /usr/local/bin?

@khinsen are they the same on both computers?

[diegotco]

How can I check that permmissions? :(

[khinsen]

On the machine where I get the error message:

~/ $ ls -ld /usr/local/bin
drwxr-xr-x@ 119 administrateur  admin  4046 May 17 11:37 /usr/local/bin

On the machine without any error:

~/ $ ls -ld /usr/local/bin
drwxr-xr-x  157 administrateur  admin  5024 Apr 25 20:45 /usr/local/bin 

So there is some difference in Apple's extended permissions, but the basic Unix permissions are the same. Note that I installed IPFS Desktop via the account "administrateur", but I run it under my personal account that has no administrator privileges.

[khinsen]

@diegotco Open Terminal.app (under /Applications/Utilities), paste the command ls -ld /usr/local/bin into it, and press Return.

[diegotco]

Thanks: Here it is :)

drwxr-xr-x 15 root wheel 480 Jun 9 08:22 /usr/local/bin

[hacdias]

yeah, the permissions look vaguely the same so that shouldn't be the problem. Oh, wait. @khinsen did you install it through a different account on the computer where it works?

@diegotco did you install with the same account you're using or you did the same as @khinsen?

[khinsen]

@hacdias On both computers, I work with a plain user account and switch to an administrator account for installing software.

[diegotco]

I have no idea hehe. I had installed this: https://screencast.com/t/Y9UZs0ddJ

And this on Firefox and Chrome: https://screencast.com/t/cmDtBiie

All of them shows me the same CID, same files :)

[hacdias]

For both of you, does this happen _all the times_?

[diegotco]

Nope, that happened just once

[khinsen]

It happened on the first startup, and then whenever I try to install the IPFS command-line tools. Otherwise IPFS Desktop works just fine, and I don't really need the command-line tools since I have go-ipfs installed anyway.

[diegotco]

@hacdias Happened to me again, today. Reason: I had to reset my Macbook, then, I do clic on Launchpad and... https://screencast.com/t/BLN555bQ1V

[hacdias]

I wonder if it is happening due to permissions, such as https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-desktop/issues/966. Next time it happens, could you click 'Report the error'? That'd give us much more detail.

@diegotco can you check the content of ~/Library/Application Support/IPFS Desktop/error.log?

[diegotco]

@hacdias Can you provide me with your public PGP key in order to send you my error.log file?

[hacdias]

@diegotco https://keybase.io/hacdias/pgp_keys.asc?fingerprint=4dc16358711be325fb3633cf2e80d38374cd55aa

[diegotco]

@hacdias done! :)

Check your inbox pls

[hacdias]

@diegotco your error is clearly related to permissions when making the symlink:

Error: EACCES: permission denied, symlink '/Applications/IPFS Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/out/late/ipfs-on-path/scripts/ipfs.sh' -> '/usr/local/bin/ipfs'
    at Object.symlinkSync (fs.js:961:3)
    at Object.createSymlinkSync (/Applications/IPFS Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/fs-extra/lib/ensure/symlink.js:55:25)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Applications/IPFS Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/out/late/ipfs-on-path/scripts/install.js:61:4)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:808:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:820:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:677:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:609:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:601:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:873:10)
    at internal/main/run_main_module.js:21:11

@khinsen could you also check ~/Library/Application Support/IPFS Desktop/error.log?

[diegotco]

@hacdias I had to re installed the Mac OS but I have all the permissions

How can I change this?

[hacdias]

@diegotco we'll hopefully fix this on your end. Although I find it weird why some people have permissions and some don't.

@khinsen could you confirm it's the same error you're facing?

[khinsen]

@hacdias I get exactly the same error. So it seems that IPFS Desktop assumes that the user has write access to /usr/local/bin. I think this is not true on a fresh macOS installation, but it has been a long time since I did one, so I am not 100% sure. Many people make /usr/local recursively writable, or change ownership to their user account, in the course of installing Homebrew. I'd thus expect that Homebrew users don't get an error, whereas many others do. Some macOS users also give administrator rights to their standard user account, which makes life easier but also more dangerous. That makes two reasons why some people have permissions whereas others don;t.

I'd say the correct way of installing system-wide stuff under macOS is to ask for administrator rights for that step. That's what many macOS application do during installation or updates. Another option is distributing IPFS Desktop as a .pkg rather than as a .app. The link in /usr/local is then set as part of the package installation.

[hacdias]

@khinsen what we add to /usr/local/bin is the ipfs binary, not the application binary. Basically we're doing the following:

• On Windows, we just add the path to the PATH because we have permission to do so.
• On Linux, we don't do it automatically. The user needs to manually toggle it in the settings and permission will be asked.
• On macOS, we add it to /usr/local/bin automatically because I was thinking everyone had permission.

My idea is to change, both for Linux and macOS:

1. Test for write permission on /usr/local/bin.
   1.1 If has permission, add the binary symlink.
   1.2 If has not permission, does not add it, and does not trigger an error. The user can manually enable it via the Settings page and will get a dialog asking for permission like this:

@khinsen what does it sound like?

---

Edit: also, as per #966, I also notice that /usr/local/bin does not exist by default on some macOS versions. Don't know yet if it applies to all.

Also, /cc @olizilla

[khinsen]

@hacdias Your proposal sounds just fine!

[khinsen]

Thanks for fixing this!

[hacdias]

Thanks for reporting! 😃 Will be available on the next release