[mythtv-users] tv_grab_zz_sdjson returning zero-length files

[James]

> On 29 Dec 2022, at 9:18 pm, Simon <linux at thehobsons.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> James <jam at tigger.ws> wrote:
> 
>> Since day 0 (IIRC 0.15 days) I refused to have a mythtv user or a cretinacious mythtv password. I'm not dissing your advice :-) but asking about the problems that I should expect.
> 
> As well as Mike’s advice, it’s not so much that you must have a MythTV user - but “everything” should be done as one user. So, for example, if you have one user that the system runs the Myth packages under, and then you run tv_grab_xxx and mythfilldatabase as a different user, you are likely to experience some issues.
> These may be simple ones which can be fixed by applying suitable permissions to certain files (e.g. to allow the different user to access the config files needed to run mythfilldatabase), they may be more “interesting” (can’t think of any examples right now). An easy mistake to make is to use a different user to put some files into the video or recordings storage group and forget to change ownership - this may be a good thing (Myth can’t delete them), but it also can be a bad thing (e.g. Myth can’t delete them - a problem if you’ve been migrating systems and the recordings files aren’t owned by Myth).
> But note that in the case of running a grabber and mythfilldatabase - some files get deleted and replaced, hence the ownership will change to the user running the programs. So without taking measures to avoid it, you have a situation where Myth running the grabber could fail after you’ve messed up the file permissions by running as a different user.
> 
> So like many things there are alternative versions of the advice, the simple advice is “run everything as your Myth user”, while the more correct version is “run everything as the Myth user unless you understand what you are doing and what the consequences are and aren’t going to moan about any issues that arise”.
> 
> 
> TL;DR version
> It’s a simple rule that will allow most people to do most things without problems - and all the install/configure scripts assume the use of one user for all Myth related tasks. If you understand the issues (mostly around permissions on files), then you can depart from that rule - but then you have to take responsibility for dealing with the issues that can occur.
> 
Actually Simon I like your answer thanks
And as I said at start "I'm not dissing" any opinions. I tend to forget that I've been playing with unix longer than some of these folk have been born while seriously contemplating "why" 
James