Hello,

I'm trying to run POV-Ray on a Linux machine where I don't have root 
privileges. This means that I can't place a proper povray.conf file in 
the directory /usr/local/etc/ . Unfortunately, no matter what else I 
specify for povray either on the command line or in the POVINI 
environment variable, it complains that reading the specified file is 
not permitted. Since directory access permissions can be specified in 
configuration files, how am I supposed to tell povray that it is 
permitted to read its config file? Will I have to recompile povray with 
a different default config file location (to which I have write 
permission), or is there some other possibility?

thx
mortee

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~/.povray.conf

-- 
plane{-x+y,-1pigment{bozo color_map{[0rgb x][1rgb x+y]}turbulence 1}}
sphere{0,2pigment{rgbt 1}interior{media{emission 1density{spherical
density_map{[0rgb 0][.5rgb<1,.5>][1rgb 1]}turbulence.9}}}scale
<1,1,3>hollow}text{ttf"timrom""Warp".1,0translate<-1,-.1,2>}//  - Warp -

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Warp wrote:
> ~/.povray.conf

I already tried that:

[/home/morton]$ ~/povray-3.5/povray ~/.povray.conf +Itest.pov
...
Possible INI File Error: Could not open INI file 
'/usr/local/etc/povray.ini'.

Command Line Error: Reading from /home/morton/.povray.conf is not permitted.
...
[/home/morton]$

mortee

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Marton Fabo <mor### [at] eikbmehu> wrote:
> [/home/morton]$ ~/povray-3.5/povray ~/.povray.conf +Itest.pov

  You don't give povray its configuration file in the command line. It
reads it all by itself.

-- 
plane{-x+y,-1pigment{bozo color_map{[0rgb x][1rgb x+y]}turbulence 1}}
sphere{0,2pigment{rgbt 1}interior{media{emission 1density{spherical
density_map{[0rgb 0][.5rgb<1,.5>][1rgb 1]}turbulence.9}}}scale
<1,1,3>hollow}text{ttf"timrom""Warp".1,0translate<-1,-.1,2>}//  - Warp -

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Warp wrote:
> Marton Fabo <mor### [at] eikbmehu> wrote:
> 
>>[/home/morton]$ ~/povray-3.5/povray ~/.povray.conf +Itest.pov
> 
> 
>   You don't give povray its configuration file in the command line. It
> reads it all by itself.

Strangely, if I don't specify it on the command line, then it just seems 
to skip it, and complains about that reading test.pov is not permitted. 
I think it skips ~/.povray.conf because its contents are:

[Permitted Paths]
read+write*=.

which should allow full access to the current directory and its subdirs. 
Povray complains nevertheless, so seemingly it doesn't read that config 
file.

The other possibiliy I can imagine is that since there is no global 
(system-wide) config file, povray thinks the system-wide permitted paths 
list is empty (of which I can't be sure). And since the user config 
files can only further constrain the global settings, my ~/.povray.conf 
's settings have no effect. Does this mean that I have to recompile 
povray anyway, with specifying a system-wide config file path to which I 
have access?

thx
mortee

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Marton Fabo wrote:
> 
> Strangely, if I don't specify it on the command line, then it just seems 
> to skip it, and complains about that reading test.pov is not permitted. 
> I think it skips ~/.povray.conf because its contents are:
> 
> [Permitted Paths]
> read+write*=.
> 

How did you assume this being valid syntax for the ~/.povray.conf of 
POV-Ray 3.5?  The Documentation describes the format of the povray.conf 
file in the platform specific part.  Also note the POV-Ray installation 
package (both source and binary) come with a povray.conf that should 
work without problems.

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Sim-POV,
HCR-Edit and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/
Last updated 01 May. 2004 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______

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Christoph Hormann wrote:
> How did you assume this being valid syntax for the ~/.povray.conf of 
> POV-Ray 3.5?

I'll tell you: since I just tried to solve my problem any way I could, I 
tried this thing also. Googling aroud revealed a documentation page 
regarding this permission stuff - and despite it was the docs of 3.6 
beta, I thought I'd give it a try. After all, why should I have assumed 
that *anything* I find in the beta docs wouldn't apply to 3.5?

Additionally, this syntax can be found in the stock povray.conf which 
comes with 3.5, so I guess I wasn't that really wrong with my assumption.

> The Documentation describes the format of the povray.conf 
> file in the platform specific part.  Also note the POV-Ray installation 
> package (both source and binary) come with a povray.conf that should 
> work without problems.

Yes. And what good is it if I don't have the privilege to install it 
where it's due, and thus povray thinks the list of permitted paths is 
empty (which I'm free to constrain further through user-specific 
configfiles)?

Anyway, thanks for the valuable input.

mortee

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Marton Fabo wrote:
> [...]
> 
> Additionally, this syntax can be found in the stock povray.conf which 
> comes with 3.5, so I guess I wasn't that really wrong with my assumption.

No, both the source package and the linux binary version of POV-Ray 3.5 
  come with a valid povray.conf.  How could it be different - the syntax 
you mention was not even invented when POV-Ray 3.5 was published...

>> The Documentation describes the format of the povray.conf file in the 
>> platform specific part.  Also note the POV-Ray installation package 
>> (both source and binary) come with a povray.conf that should work 
>> without problems.
> 
> Yes. And what good is it if I don't have the privilege to install it 
> where it's due, and thus povray thinks the list of permitted paths is 
> empty

Read what i wrote, you can simply copy the povray.conf in the package at 
the appropriate place and it will work.  I never said you should use the 
install script.

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Sim-POV,
HCR-Edit and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/
Last updated 01 May. 2004 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______

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Christoph Hormann wrote:
> No, both the source package and the linux binary version of POV-Ray 3.5 
>  come with a valid povray.conf. 

I haven't denied that either.

> How could it be different - the syntax 
> you mention was not even invented when POV-Ray 3.5 was published...

Now I dounle-checked it, and indeed, the syntax is similar but 
different. And then what? It was a failed attempt to somehow work around 
my problem. Do you think I should be burned for trying, and hoping that 
it would work?

>> Yes. And what good is it if I don't have the privilege to install it 
>> where it's due, and thus povray thinks the list of permitted paths is 
>> empty
> 
> Read what i wrote, you can simply copy the povray.conf in the package at 
> the appropriate place and it will work.  I never said you should use the 
> install script.

Please read the whole thread before being so smart. I already mentioned 
that I have no root privileges on the machine in question, so I can't in 
any way install a config file to /usr/local/etc, where povray looks for 
it. I don't give a sh*t about the install script.

mortee

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Marton Fabo wrote:
> 
> Now I dounle-checked it, and indeed, the syntax is similar but 
> different. And then what? It was a failed attempt to somehow work around 
> my problem. Do you think I should be burned for trying, and hoping that 
> it would work?

I have the impression you are slightly loosing perspective here, if you 
want to solve your problem you should follow the suggestions Warp and 
myself gave.  If you just want to argue about your assumptions how 
POV-Ray works and how it should work this is not the right place.

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Sim-POV,
HCR-Edit and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/
Last updated 01 May. 2004 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______

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