Windows setup.py: Symlinking requires Admin Privileges

[Jdaviz-Triage-Bot]

Reporter: Duy Nguyen

In testing jdaviz on Windows 11, it almost worked flawlessly on Python 3.9.7 (latest py39), up until running the setup.py for jdaviz:

  Running setup.py develop for jdaviz
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: 'E:\STScI\gitRepos\jdaviz\envmain\Scripts\python.exe' -c 'import io, os, sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'E:\\STScI\\gitRepos\\jdaviz\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'E:\\STScI\\gitRepos\\jdaviz\\setup.py'"'"';f = getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__) if os.path.exists(__file__) else io.StringIO('"'"'from setuptools import setup; setup()'"'"');code = f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' develop --no-deps
         cwd: E:\STScI\gitRepos\jdaviz\
    Complete output (3 lines):
    running develop
    error: [WinError 1314] A required privilege is not held by the client: '..\\..\\..\\..\\..\\share\\jupyter\\nbconvert\\templates\\jdaviz-default' -> 'E:\\STScI\\gitRepos\\jdaviz\\envmain\\share\\jupyter\\nbconvert/templates\\jdaviz-default'
    ..\..\..\..\..\share\jupyter\nbconvert\templates\jdaviz-default -> E:\STScI\gitRepos\jdaviz\envmain\share\jupyter\nbconvert/templates\jdaviz-default
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: 'E:\STScI\gitRepos\jdaviz\envmain\Scripts\python.exe' -c 'import io, os, sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'E:\\STScI\\gitRepos\\jdaviz\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'E:\\STScI\\gitRepos\\jdaviz\\setup.py'"'"';f = getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__) if os.path.exists(__file__) else io.StringIO('"'"'from setuptools import setup; setup()'"'"');code = f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' develop --no-deps Check the logs for full command output.

I found this discussion which I think points to the possible problem: AcademySoftwareFoundation/rez#594

and as it would suggest, when I reran the install as my System Administrator, the install worked. The problem would therein lie here:

jdaviz/setup.py

Line 141 in 0712a8c

os.symlink(rel_source, target)

This part of our setup.py is so opaque I can't understand what's going on here :/ But as our Windows Dev Advocate, I'd strongly recommend trying to resolve this!

🐱

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DISCLAIMER: This issue was autocreated by the Jdaviz Issue Creation Bot on behalf of the reporter. If any information is incorrect, please contact Duy Nguyen

[pllim]

Looks like @nmearl introduced that symlink back in #61 .

[pllim]

Reply from @nmearl -- It is used to specify custom theming for Voila apps. I did not write it, but I did use it when I wrote the custom JDAViz theme. You can see it being used in other theming templates; from https://voila.readthedocs.io/en/stable/customize.html#creating-your-own-template, you can see it being used in the material ui theme (https://github.com/voila-dashboards/voila-material/blob/master/setup.py), and the vuetify theme (https://github.com/voila-dashboards/voila-vuetify/blob/master/setup.py).

So maybe @maartenbreddels or @mariobuikhuizen can clarify on how to fix this properly?

[maartenbreddels]

This is required for a dev install (i.e. pip install -e .). Is this something you need? Otherwise we can skip that step for windows.

[pllim]

Ideally, a developer on Windows would be able to also pip install -e ., yes. Is symlink absolutely needed or can you replace it with making a copy?

[pllim]

Or does copy also need admin priv?

[maartenbreddels]

No it doesn't need that. You could fallback to a copy, but then the template would not be editable in the source tree (you'd need to run pip install each time you edit, or copy manually).

[pllim]

Hmm, what a dilemma. @duytnguyendtn , what do you think?

[pllim]

#1218 reverted because of 🍎