[Zope] interaction with local FS

[Dieter Maurer]

Cross post eliminated...

Mario Bianchi wrote at 2003-1-27 14:24 +0000:
 > I'm curious in finding out how zope interacts with the server's file system: 
 > let's say I want to allow the users of my site to manage (read/write) their 
 > own files on the server's file system, does Zope support this goal anyhow?
No, for several reasons:

  *  In order to switch users dynamically, Zope would need to run
     as root. This is a very bad idea for a powerful Web server
     like Zope with a connection to the dangerous internet...

  *  The user is a property of the process and not its individual
     threads. Heavy locking would be necessary to synchronize
     switching between users.

 > As far as I've seen, to me the response seems to be no, it doesn't! The only 
 > way to access the server's file system from zope seems to be using the 
 > ExternalFile product, which is far from satisfactory from the point of view 
 > of file access rights: it only allows access to files owned by zope itself 
 > (or in the same group of zope's).
 > No way to access 'someuser''s files with the uid of 'someuser'?
Right, unless you run Zope as root, switch users dynamically
and ensure, threads are not switched while Zope runs as a special
user.

Forget about it, unless you really know what you are doing...

Or give each user its own Zope process...


Dieter