Oolite Bulletins

You do know that virtually all executable programs write files one way or another, right? I can assure you that every single program you run will at some point have to write an .ini file or save some information on the disk and unless you know exactly where it is writing and what it is doing, chances are that you will simply break it if you block it. Just as you have seen with Oolite.

Anyway, if it makes you feel safer, I can assure you that the files you download from Berlios are double checked for viruses and/or other threats on more than one machine prior to being uploaded. My recommendation that you allow Oolite full access to its directory structure still stands.

I thik he means that executable files should not be writeable (they cannot be updated).

The risk is that if an executable file is writable, then you can add malicious code to it, and then when it is executed it can do bad things.

Most obvious are scripts.
If I edit a shell script that someone has and add something like then there is a risk that anyone who runs the script will lose their home directory. you can easily modify the file to then modify itself, so that if anyone inspcts it, looking for the cause, they will see only the clean original file.

If executable files are not writeable, then you are much safer, in general

In addition to what other people have said, Oolite uses oolite.app/GNUstep/Library/Caches to store textures and - well - as a temporary cache. Without write access to a temporary cache Oolite is going to be much slower than normal...

Cmdr James wrote:

I thik he means that executable files should not be writeable (they cannot be updated).

If this is the case, then apologies, I misunderstood. The folders <OOlite Install Directory>\oolite.app\GNUstep, <OOlite Install Directory>\oolite.app\Library\Caches, OOlite Install Directory>\oolite.app and, of course, <OOlite Install Directory>\oolite.app\oolite-saves should be given write access for Oolite to work without problems.

Might be a good idea for future versions to separate the directories in such a way that I don't need to give write access to directories with executable files and libraries.