@Vlad .. I did not think that you suggested storing data in program files. I understood very well that you advised that it should not be done like that. But I pointed out that in my opinion the main reason is not that Windows (from XP at least) will try to hide the content in program files from user - in my opinion the main problem (with UAC set ON) occurs if the server is sometimes started as a service and sometimes as a user program - because the server will then write database content to different file positions in the two cases (and that was also the reason why MySQL changed their installer). If server is always started as a service this problem will not occur. Also if server is installed elsewhere than program files (like c:\mysql) it will not happen.
I am only trying to get attention to what may happen if 3 conditions are met:
1) UAC is ON
2) server is installed to program files
3) server is sometimes started as a service and sometimes as a user program
.
I am still awaiting comments to my outline of how work on an installer could be started earlier in this thread. I think we may be able to wrap up something in a few days based on NSIS. Actually almost everything I outlned is rather trivial (we can copy most from our SQLyog/MONyog installers) with the sole problem that we will need to 'replace into a file'. I do not think we did before, but with scintilla/scilexer I also think we can handle this too without too much difficulty. But I will have to discuss details about this with Khusbbo and Manoj (our tech lead) 2row as today was holiday in India. But if nobody likes the outlined workflow then it would be waste of time of course!
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Peter
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On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 22:04, Vladislav Vaintroub
<wlad@sun.com> wrote:
From: Peter Laursen [mailto:peter_laursen@webyog.com]
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 7:00 PM
To: Vladislav Vaintroub
Cc: Sergey Petrunya; Henrik Ingo; maria-developers@lists.launchpad.net
Subject: Re: [Maria-developers] Windows installer, part 2
>@Vlad .. we have discussed that already - but the main reason is another: With UAC ('user account control') ON on Vista and higher even an admin user cannot write to 'program files' unless progeam is started with explicit admin >privilege. If server is isntalle to \program files and a user starts the server from command line *as a user*(NOTE: an admin user does not neccesarily have admin privileges with UAC on) all writes will to to user's \virtualstore >folder - what means that database files will be duplicated: one copy for 'system' and one for 'user.
.
>Please try to understand the differences between WIndows 2000/XP/2003 on one side and Vista/2008/win7 on the other. I am referring to UAC. If you never used any Windows version higher than XP .. well then .. accept the limitation of >your experience.
I'm wondering how did you derive that:) I used to run Longhorn/Vista betas since 2006, Win7/2008R2 betas since January this year, so I do know pretty well the stuff you're talking about :)
>There will need an option for user to specify bot 'basedir' and 'datadir' independently. default 'basedir' should be 'program files' - default datadir should be 'AppData'.
>This is the (mine) bug report where this discussion started in MySQL context:
>
http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=34593
In contrary, my position on that was always that
- it is bad to store data or config files in Program Files
- it is bad to run MySQL service under administrative account and it is even worse to run it under SYSTEM.
The core of the UAC is dumbing down members of Administrators group to be a normal users by default. So now, if service would not run as high-privileged administrative account (it does not need any admin privileges), and installation would save config files in a place where they are editable, then users would not have to care or know anything about UAC. Also note, using least possible privileges is a prerequisite for passing formal MS certifications, since at least Windows2003 times. And please refer to my previous post about security - I described how improving security creates on the other hand user friendly UAC-popup-free experience.