[postgis-devel] PSC Vote: Get rid of micro in PostGIS Extension scripts (and comments from others)

[Regina Obe]

From: postgis-devel [mailto:postgis-devel-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Rindahl
Sent: Tuesday, June 7, 2022 10:19 AM
To: PostGIS Development Discussion <postgis-devel at lists.osgeo.org>; Bruce Rindahl <bruce.rindahl at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [postgis-devel] PSC Vote: Get rid of micro in PostGIS Extension scripts (and comments from others)

 

Depends on the package.  To install PostgreSQL as a windows service takes admin rights (EDB).  To start PostgreSQL via a command (pg_ctl) each time does not.

 

On Tue, Jun 7, 2022 at 8:01 AM Sandro Santilli <strk at kbt.io <mailto:strk at kbt.io> > wrote:

On Tue, Jun 07, 2022 at 07:20:32AM -0600, Bruce Rindahl wrote:
> Windows does support symbolic links but you need admin privileges to create
> them.  I believe you need admin rights to install PostgreSQL but not
> PostGIS.

This is very interesting. How come you don't need admin rights to
install PostGIS ? Installing PostGIS implies writing files to the
"extension" directory of PostgreSQL install, is that considered safe
by the Windows security model ? Does that imply installing PostgreSQL
in a non-system directory ?

--strk;

[Regina Obe] 

 

Installing the binaries for PostGIS (via installer) generally does because it writes to the registry too.  The permissions on PostgreSQL folder I can’t remember if they are protected or not.  In many cases of installing, they aren’t so you can copy the files directly even not as an administrator and then be able to do 

 

CREATE EXENSION postgis;

 

To be honest, I never have regular users on servers directly anyway, so I haven’t tested all of that. For desktop I always use self-contained PostgreSQL/PostGIS by compiling myself or using EDB zip files.  As offered here: https://www.enterprisedb.com/download-postgresql-binaries

 

So even if I have no admin rights, I can run a self-contained postgresql/postgis just fine.

 

And since those don’t write to registry, just extract anywhere you have rights and launch, you don’t need admin rights, except to install the dependency VC++ runtime if it isn’t already installed on your desktop.

 

 

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