The code that generates the little diagrams on my station pages like this one is written in PostScript. Well, to be strict, it’s PS generated by a Haskell program and exactly why it’s that way is probably a question for @Ben Harris who wrote the code during one of our station collecting holidays.
Anyway, today I noticed it had stopped working. "Last OS error: Permission denied” says Ghostscript on running the code. And yet, stracing the whole thing, nowhere is an EACCES to be seen. Turns out Ghostscript has made default a “safe mode” which restricts PostScript file operations to only those files you specify in advance. You can get around it by adding -dNOSAFER to the gs command line. Fine, whatever.
But what I definitely object to is Ghostscript sounding like it’s reporting an ordinary OS-level system call error, when in fact it’s reporting its own MADE UP ERROR. They could at least have had the decency not to call it an
... show moreThe code that generates the little diagrams on my station pages like this one is written in PostScript. Well, to be strict, it’s PS generated by a Haskell program and exactly why it’s that way is probably a question for @Ben Harris who wrote the code during one of our station collecting holidays.
Anyway, today I noticed it had stopped working. "Last OS error: Permission denied” says Ghostscript on running the code. And yet, stracing the whole thing, nowhere is an EACCES to be seen. Turns out Ghostscript has made default a “safe mode” which restricts PostScript file operations to only those files you specify in advance. You can get around it by adding -dNOSAFER to the gs command line. Fine, whatever.
But what I definitely object to is Ghostscript sounding like it’s reporting an ordinary OS-level system call error, when in fact it’s reporting its own MADE UP ERROR. They could at least have had the decency not to call it an “OS error”. Grr.
