[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #58225] Installing package fails when package was already installed globally

[Philip Nienhuis]

Follow-up Comment #6, bug #58225 (project octave):

Indeed that is the obvious workaround.

Last weekend (while sailing) I was thinking over this a bit.

This is also going to hit unwary users when doing a "pkg upgrade".

Most users have little notion of the difference between local and global
package installations. That subject is only briefly touched in pkg.m's help.
So what might be needed is (IMO):
* a more general introduction in pkg.m's texinfo about what pkg.m does, and
that, and why, there is a difference between local and global package
installations
* catching if Octave is run with or without admin credentials
* when installing a package, find out if there is already a global
installation of it
* if yes:
** if Octave runs with admin privs, install/upgrade the package right away
** if Octave runs w/o, we have to choose [1]:
*** proceed silently with a local installation (catch the global uninstall
process), knowing that a local installation shadows a global one. So we'd only
need to insert the "-local" flag somewhere so that pkg. explicitly does a
local install.
*** same, but emit a suitable warning.
*** emit an error and abort; explain that a "-local" flag is explicitly
required.
* if no:
** leave the process as it is now (undefined; sometimes a global package is
replaced, sometimes a newer package is installed locally)
** depending on admin privs, install local or global.

 

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