# How do I modify the PATH node-red uses to find command line executables?
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670
**Category:** General
**Created:** [22 July 2024 12:42 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670 "2024-07-22T12:42:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [22 July 2024 12:42 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/1 "2024-07-22T12:42:32Z")
My google skills are failing me. I upgraded to MacOS Sonoma and I screwed up the system perl modules when trying to re-install dependencies of scripts I wrote that are called from `osascripts` that are called from a couple NR exec nodes.
I since installed `perlbrew` (which I should have done in the first place, long ago - I also shouldn't have installed modules in the system perl, but it is what it is...), and `perlbrew`'s modules are installed and working correctly. I can call the same `osascript` from the command line and it works without issue, but that same command in an `exec` node still apparrently is using `/usr/bin/perl`.
I tried grepping through the various config files and `settings.js`, but I cannot figure out how to modify the `PATH` that node-red uses to find system executables.
I could modify the `osascript` to add the absolute path to the `perl` I need, but I don't like hard-coding absolute paths like that.
---
### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [22 July 2024 13:21 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/2 "2024-07-22T13:21:34Z")
How are you running node-red? In Ubuntu or Pi OS, if running as a service, then the path is setup in the systemd script, `/lib/systemd/system/nodered.service`.
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [22 July 2024 13:47 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/3 "2024-07-22T13:47:20Z")
I'm running in macos sonoma. My node red version is pretty old. I'm running it with `pm2`. I plan to upgrade in the near future.
But anyway, I have worked around this issue by soft-linking perlbrew's perl executable in `/usr/local/bin`, however, I'm now presented with a new problem...
For whatever reason, I now get an error about not being able to find an input file (via a glob) from the perl script, which I cannot reproduce on the command line, and I'm scratching my head on this one...
The globbed path is `$ENV{HOME}/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders/Container_v1/Stores/Data-*.sqlite`.
The only hunch I have is that maybe it has to do with an old perl module I wrote called `CommandLineInterface`. If I remember correctly, it used to have a bug WRT spaces in globbed file paths, but I fixed that a pretty long time ago, and that doesn't explain why it works on the command line.
The only way I can reproduce the error is by running it via the flow. The glob is a hard-coded default in the script. It would be useful if I could just add the `--debug` flag to find out what's happening, but the output is too copious to view in node-red...
I guess I could output temporarily to a file. What's the easiest way to view STDERR from an exec node?
---
### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [22 July 2024 13:55 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/4 "2024-07-22T13:55:49Z")
> [@hepcat72](#):
>
> What's the easiest way to view STDERR from an exec node?
Install node-red-contrib-flogger, then you can easily send it to a file. Or just configure a debug node to send to the console then it will appear in the node red log.
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 13:40 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/5 "2024-07-23T13:40:20Z")
OK. I have identified the root of the problem that determines the difference in behavior of the command line versus the node-RED exec node on Sonoma (i.e. the behavior was the same in my previous MacOS - and it could just have to do with config?).
The difference is boiled down to the `use File::Glob ':glob'` behavior. My `CommandLineInterface.pm` module uses a call like this to glob strings into file paths:
```auto
perl -e 'use File::Glob ":glob";print(bsd_glob("/Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders/Container_v1/Stores/Data-*-*.sqlite",GLOB_CSH),"\n")'
```
On my command line, it outputs this:
```auto
[golrath:~] robleach% perl -e 'use File::Glob ":glob";print(bsd_glob("/Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders/Container_v1/Stores/Data-*-*.sqlite",GLOB_CSH),"\n")'
/Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders/Container_v1/Stores/Data-A0D24954-1339-494B-9E7D-9D0911C096F8.sqlite/Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders/Container_v1/Stores/Data-B826F8F1-0153-4318-8666-F1C8EBBFCE96.sqlite/Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders/Container_v1/Stores/Data-D8328338-F382-4E34-8C39-E1DC35D60A32.sqlite
```
But when the same command is run via an exec node (and I confirmed it uses the same perl executable):
The result is:
Now I just want to confirm whether the modules being used are the same or not...
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 13:44 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/6 "2024-07-23T13:44:11Z")
Yep. It's the same version:
```auto
[golrath:~] robleach% perl -e 'use File::Glob ":glob";print("$File::Glob::VERSION\n")'
1.37
```
It must have something to do with the csh/tcsh version that node-RED has access to???
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 13:47 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/7 "2024-07-23T13:47:56Z")
No. Even the csh versions are the same!
```auto
[golrath:~] robleach% csh --version
tcsh 6.21.00 (Astron) 2019-05-08 (x86_64-apple-darwin) options wide,nls,dl,bye,al,kan,sm,rh,color,filec
[golrath:~] robleach% tcsh --version
tcsh 6.21.00 (Astron) 2019-05-08 (x86_64-apple-darwin) options wide,nls,dl,bye,al,kan,sm,rh,color,filec
```
This is so weird.
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 14:24 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/8 "2024-07-23T14:24:44Z")
I posted a [stack question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/78784008/confounding-differing-behavior-of-the-fileglob-subroutine-bsd-glob-in-node) about this.
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 17:40 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/9 "2024-07-23T17:40:07Z")
Someone on stack suspects its a permissions issue (the interplay between Sonoma and node-RED). My boss suspects it's an environment issue. Any insights, given those thoughts?
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 18:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/10 "2024-07-23T18:11:05Z")
Looks like they were right. Tried just doing an `ls` in the exec node at every point along the path, and I get `Operation not permitted` for everything under `Group Containers`. So it looks like (according to [this article](https://nono.ma/operation-not-permitted-macos-sonoma) I found), I need to grant full disk access to the node-red process/executable. Anything I need to know about that node-red process to do this? Is it only `/usr/local/bin/node-red` that I need to give access to?
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 18:22 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/11 "2024-07-23T18:22:05Z")
Well, it's not as simple as granting the node-red executable full disk access (i.e. the `red.js` file that `/usr/local/bin/node-red` links to). I tried that, restarted node-red, and I still cannot `ls` the target directories from the exec node.
Any insights on how to grant node-red disk access would be appreciated... Has anyone had to do this before?
---
### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 19:34 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/12 "2024-07-23T19:34:26Z")
What do these show, from cli and node red?
`ls -l /Users/robleach/Library`
and
`ls -l "/Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers"`
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 19:53 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/13 "2024-07-23T19:53:57Z")
They show the list of files in both cases with `robleach` as the owner and group as `staff` (apple default group for users). They also show owner permissions of `rwx`. The group and world permissions are either `r-xr-x` or `------`, depending on how deep you go. When I try `/Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders` (or anything deeper), I only get the list of files with the same permissions on the command line. In Node-RED, I get `Operation not permitted`.
Apple has apparently applied some sort of restrictions on top of what the owner/group permissions you see in the inodes. Even as root, you cannot mess with system files. I had run into a similar issue on a different Sonoma mac last week, but those were low level files. This is the first issue I ran into under a user home directory.
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 19:57 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/14 "2024-07-23T19:57:01Z")
Oh, I forgot I'd left my VNC session going. Here's a snippet of exactly what it shows on the command line:
```auto
[golrath:~] robleach% ls -l "/Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers/"
total 0
...
drwx------@ 5 robleach staff 160 Jul 21 11:27 group.com.apple.reminders
...
```
And here's the reminders one:
```auto
[golrath:~] robleach% ls -l "/Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders"
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 6 robleach staff 192 Jul 21 17:45 Container_v1
drwx------ 6 robleach staff 192 Feb 18 2022 Library
```
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 19:58 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/15 "2024-07-23T19:58:22Z")
Oh yeah, and Library is:
```auto
drwx------ 70 robleach staff 2240 Jul 22 11:28 Group Containers
```
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 20:02 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/16 "2024-07-23T20:02:57Z")
The exact output from node-red is:
```auto
ls: /Users/robleach/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders: Operation not permitted
```
The other 2 directories' output via node-red appears exactly the same. I didn't look in the log for the precise directories in question.
---
### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 21:00 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/17 "2024-07-23T21:00:08Z")
What does the command `whoami` show when run in an exec node?
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [23 July 2024 21:12 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/18 "2024-07-23T21:12:39Z")
I'll have to check when I get home, but pm2 gave me the process ID `501` and I did an `id` on my account and it was also `501`, so my bet is that `whoami` will return `robleach`, but that's a good test. I will report back.
---
### Author:  [@hepcat72](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hepcat72)
#### Post date: [24 July 2024 14:36 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/19 "2024-07-24T14:36:10Z")
Well, I solved it temporarily in a heavy handed way by granting the `node` executable full disk access. I posted an answer on stack. It's worth noting that I'm not sure how to grant access to Node-RED specifically, but the MacOS permissions structure is rather complex and has avenues for developers to trigger the system to prompt the user to allow access, instead of it just either silently or which a `Operation not permitted` error. It involves creating some sort of bookmark file. I didn't dig into it, but a response to [my Apple Developer forum cross-post on this issue](https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/760291#760291021) elicited a helpful response with a link to a permissions explainer post.
---
### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [24 July 2024 14:57 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-do-i-modify-the-path-node-red-uses-to-find-command-line-executables/89670/20 "2024-07-24T14:57:17Z")
Did whoami give the right user?
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