I'm using powershell to export-csv a table. If the csv file is open anywhere on the network, the script will not overwrite the file. Is there anyway to work around this?
You would need to change how the network deals with users opening the files.
Usually, when a user (who is not an admin) opens a file on the network, you want the user to open it as read-only.
Only then, you will be able to overwrite the file using your script (with admin privs ofc)
If you do not have control over the network, the best option would be to create a different file with the same name but with revision number at the end. For example, "a.csv" would become "a001.csv" after the first edit.
Because of the nature of the solution, it will create havoc if multiple users are working on the same file.
In this case, I would suggest looking at version control softwares... But then again, it would be silly to go through all this for just editing a simple .csv file.. So, the answer is "it's complicated"
Related
I made a workbook with VBA which is stored at shared folder of my employer. Employees can open this folder and workbook, but only as read-only.
User at this workbook works with several macros and I need to count number of starts these macros and store this data somewhere. In the best way, it will be stored in the workbook itself. But they do not have rights to modify the workbook, so they cannot save it even if I will try do it automatically as part of macro.
So what I need, is to find a way, how to make this workbook self editing (or auto-saving).
I found two possible ways, but they do not work at this scenario:
Because the file is opened just in read-only mode, I cannot save it directly. I even cannot use save-as and rewrite that file, because I haven't rights to editing it in that folder.
I found a way, where is new document in PC repository and the workbook saves data in that file and this file must be saved somewhere, where it could be editable. But I do not know networking enough to find a save place where I will make this file and even more, I am not sure, how will HQ looks at this type of activity.
I would prefer to count it in the file, but from MS support I get, that I cannot save it, just rewrite, which is impossible if I have not rights for that. So my question is, is there any save way how to count it or store data somewhere else?
As far as I know, without getting write-permissions fixed for your users, it can't be done. You should work with your network administrator to explain your requirements for the users.
Alternatively, you need to find a place where every user DOES have write-access, then design the script to save-as to that location. It all comes down to permissions.
How do you make a specific folder that has subfolders to be uneditable in Sublime text? ? I know it's possible but how ? Like i have some old projects that I want to use as a reference to study my old code, but i"m worried that I mistakenly edited some parts of that specific module / file, when I'm mindlessly touring around my code.. How do I do it ? like making a specific folder to be uneditable in sublime text that only modifying it can change it . I mean I tried installing this one package : https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Toggle%20Read-Only
But it still gives me a prompt whenever I want to changed something from a file
Your best bet is to make sure that your source code is covered by some sort of Source Control, such as git or Subversion; this is just always a good idea in general and unrelated to your particular question. Having your code under source control means that when you edit a file (accidentally or on purpose) you can see exactly what you edited or throw those edits away and go back to what you had if you want to. If you also push your code to an external server, such as GitHUb (if you use git) then you also have a cheap and easy off-site backup of your code as well.
That said, if you want to make files uneditable, that's more the job of your file system than the tools that you're using to edit the files (in this case Sublime Text).
All file systems and operating systems should have the concept of a read-only file, which sounds like what you want. A file being marked as read-only stops you from accidentally modifying it; depending on the software that you use, edits are either impossible or will need to be confirmed.
In your case, you can do this in a couple of different ways. If you only want to protect a couple of files, then you would do a Right click and choose Properties; in the bottom of the General tab there is a check box you can check to make that file read-only:
If you have many files, you can do the same thing by editing the properties of the folder that contains the code instead:
When you do this to a folder, the property set works a little differently; since you're modifying the folder as a whole, you need to click the box twice to change it from a square (shown above) to a check mark. When you apply the change, you will be asked if you only want to make files inside of that directory read-only, or all files in that folder as well as all folders under it; choose as appropriate.
Sublime will let you open read-only files and will also let you modify their contents, but when you try to save you will get a warning dialog telling you that the file is write-protected; you need to confirm if you want to actually save changes or not; (other software may not prompt with such a dialog and may just fail):
If you choose to save, you will remove the read-only attribute and make the file normal again.
If you want to make a file completely un-editable so that you can't even accidentally change the file, you can achieve that with a simple plugin in combination with making the file read-only (see this video if you're not sure how to apply a plugin):
import sublime
import sublime_plugin
import os
class ReadOnlyListener(sublime_plugin.EventListener):
def on_load(self, view):
if (os.path.exists(view.file_name())
and not os.access(view.file_name(), os.W_OK)):
view.set_read_only(True)
EDIT: The internal View Package Files command will open package resources from sublime-package files transparently and give them a filename that represents where they would exist on disk if they were not in the package file.
The plugin from the original answer would stop you from being able to use this command by noting that the file is not writable (because it does not exist on disk) and make the view read-only, which stops the file content from being displayed because the view can't be modified.
This is rectified in the edit above by only taking action if the file actually exists on disk (the View Package File command already makes files it loads in this manner read-only if they do not exist on disk).
This makes an event listener that checks every time you open a file to see if the file is writable, and if it's not it makes the view read-only. This distinction is Sublime specific; regardless of the underlying state of the file, you just can't make any changes to such a file at all. That doesn't stop you from saving the file even if you haven't made any changes, which would have the same effect as the above.
I frequently open large excel files (100 MB+) from a network location that I completely trust. However, the default trusted domains on the workstation that I use does not include files on the network drive. It is cumbersome to load each excel file twice (once to open it from explorer, then again to 'enable editing', i.e. remove protected view).
Is there an argument/switch that can be provided to excel.exe from the command line that will force a file to be opened in unprotected(editable) view? I would find this less cumbersome than waiting for a large file to load twice.
I typically use Excel 2010 and 2013.
Note: I already know how to disable protected view through the excel interface, this is not the solution I am looking for, as these settings reset to their defaults everytime I log off the workstation.
I am also prepared to accept the fact that this might not be possible to do except in the Excel GUI. But if anyone has a workable solution, that would be brilliant. Thank you!
Is there an argument/switch that can be provided to excel.exe from the command line that will force a file to be opened in unprotected(editable) view?
No.
The protected view comes as a result of the level in the security settings, thus it would be a major security problem, if it can be avoided.
As a possible workaround - copy the files to your computer, mark it as trusted and open them there.
When working in Excel, sometimes we have external data sources.
In Windows, these files may be stored in a specific location such as C:\Users\Freelensia\Dropbox\data source.xls
When sharing the main file and the data source file with another person through file-sharing services such as Dropbox, the location of the data source will be changed to:
C:\Users\PeterSmith\Dropbox\data source.xls
(from the view of the Peter Smith user)
This will break the data connection in the main file when Peter opens it. He can reset the path to the one as seen from his computer, but that will break the connection for the Freelensia user when he/she opens it from his/her end.
Is there a way to permanently fix these locations for multiple users? Such that Excel will correctly get the path when the right user opens it.
I am looking for an inherent Excel property if such a thing exists. Else VBA macros (A table with the file paths for each user, and MsgBox that ask the user to choose the user profile). Else a Windows .bat file could work as well.
Thank you for your help.
A trick to this is to move your Dropbox to C:\Dropbox for all users.
To do that, click on the Dropbox icon at the bottom-right, click the Gear Icon, Settings, Sync Tab, then you can move the folder to C:\Dropbox.
If you encounter permission errors, follow the instructions here to reset the permissions:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/move-dropbox-folder
If my understanding is right when ever a different user opens/saves a file the path "C:\Users\xxxxxxx\Dropbox\data source.xls" will be same only "xxxxxxx" in the path will be varying with the active user who has logged in.
So use "Application.UserName" function to get the username and use it in the path mentioned above
Excel uses relative links, even though it shows longer paths in the cells when you look at them. This ends up meaning that if you move the file and the file(s) it is connecting to a different location then the links will still work.
If you put your main file in Dropbox\Excel\main.xlsx and then your data sources in Dropbox\Excel\Data\data sources.xlsx then I think you should be good.
I tested this with Google Drive on two different computers, taking turns opening and modifying the data source and also opening and having the main file update without any issues.
I am not positive if this would work for you in Dropbox, but I really think it should... I am using Excel 2010, so if you are using Excel 2003 (or saving files as .xls instead of the newer .xlsx format) there is a possibility that could cause issues.
I am trying to write a bash script to do a task, I have done pretty well so far, and have it working to an extent, but I want to set it up so it's distributable to other people, and will be opening it up as open source, so I want to start doing things the "conventional" way. Unfortunately I'm not all that sure what the conventional way is.
Ideally I want a link to an in depth online resource that discusses this and surrounding topics in depth, but I'm having difficulty finding keywords that will locate this on google.
At the start of my script I set a bunch of global variables that store the names of the dirs that it will be accessing, this means that I can modify the dir's quickly, but this is programming shortcuts, not user shortcuts, I can't tell the users that they have to fiddle with this stuff. Also, I need for individual users' settings not to get wiped out on every upgrade.
Questions:
Name of settings folder: ~/.foo/ -- this is well and good, but how do I keep my working copy and my development copy separate? tweek the reference in the source of the dev version?
If my program needs to maintain and update library of data (gps tracklog data in this case) where should this directory be? the user will need to access some of this data, but it's mostly for internal use. I personally work in cygwin, and I like to keep this data on separate drive, so the path is wierd, I suspect many users could find this. for a default however I'm thinking ~/gpsdata/ -- would this be normal, or should I hard code a system that ask the user at first run where to put it, and stores this in the settings folder? whatever happens I'm going ot have to store the directory reference in a file in the settings folder.
The program needs a data "inbox" that is a folder that the user can dump files, then run the script to process these files. I was thinking ~/gpsdata/in/ ?? though there will always be an option to add a file or folder to the command line to use that as well (it processed files all locations listed, including the "inbox")
Where should the script its self go? it's already smart enough that it can create all of it's ancillary/settings files (once I figure out the "correct" directory) if run with "./foo --setup" I could shove it in /usr/bin/ or /bin or ~/.foo/bin (and add that to the path) what's normal?
I need to store login details for a web service that it will connect to (using curl -u if it matters) plan on including a setting whereby it asks for a username and password every execution, but it currently stores it plane text in a file in ~/.foo/ -- I know, this is not good. The webservice (osm.org) does support oauth, but I have no idea how to get curl to use it -- getting curl to speak to the service in the first place was a hack. Is there a simple way to do a really basic encryption on a file like this to deter idiots armed with notepad?
Sorry for the list of questions, I believe they are closely related enough for a single post. This is all stuff that stabbing at, but would like clarification/confirmation over.
Name of settings folder: ~/.foo/ -- this is well and good, but how do I keep my working copy and my development copy separate?
Have a default of ~/.foo, and an option (for example --config-directory) that you can use to override the default while developing.
If my program needs to maintain and update library of data (gps tracklog data in this case) where should this directory be?
If your script is running under a normal user account, this will have to be somewhere in the user's home directory; elsewhere, you'll have no write permissions. Perhaps ~/.foo/tracklog or something? Again, add a command line option, and also an option in the configuration file, to override this.
I'm not a fan of your ~/gpsdata default; I don't want my home directory cluttered with all sorts of directories that programs created without my consent. You see this happen on Windows a lot, and it's really annoying. (Saved games in My Documents? Get out of here!)
The program needs a data "inbox" that is a folder that the user can dump files, then run the script to process these files. I was thinking ~/gpsdata/in/ ?
As stated above, I'd prefer ~/.foo/inbox. Also with command-line option and configuration file option to change this.
But do you really need an inbox? If the user needs to run the script manually over some files, it might be better just to accept those file names on the command line. They could just be processed wherever, without having to move them to a "magic" location.
Where should the script its self go?
This is usually up to the packaging system of the particular OS you're running on. When installing from source, /usr/local/bin is a sensible default that won't interfere with package managers.
Is there a simple way to do a really basic encryption on a file like this to deter idiots armed with notepad?
Yes, there is. But it's better not to, because it creates a false sense of security. Without a master password or something, secure storage is not possible! Pidgin, for example, explicitly stores passwords in plain text, so that users won't make any false assumptions about their passwords being stored "securely". So it's best just to store them in plain text, complain if the file is world-readable, and add a clear note to the manual to warn the user what's going on.
Bottom line: don't try to reinvent the wheel. There have been thousands of scripts and programs that faced the same issues; most of them ended up adopting the same conventions, and for good reasons. Look at what they do, and mimic them instead of reinventing the wheel.
You can start with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. I'm not sure how well followed it is, but it does provide some guidance. In general, I try to use the following:
$HOME/.foo/ is used for user-specific settings - it is hidden
$PREFIX/etc/foo/ is for system-wide configuration
$PREFIX/foo/bin/ is for system-wide binaries
sym-links from $PREFIX/foo/bin are added to $PREFIX/bin/ for ease of use
$PREFIX/foo/var/ is where variable data would live - this is where your input spools and log files would live
$PREFIX should default to /opt/foo even though almost everyone seems to plop stuff in /usr/local by default (thanks GNU!). If someone wants to install the package in their home directory, then substitute $HOME for $PREFIX. At least that is my take on how this should all work.