Hi,
I installed an existing and working node-red flow on a new revolution pi with node-red 4.09.
The node-red creates using a pdfmake node a file on the pi. Now I allways get errors because node-red has no access to my directories. I proofed everything with the bash commands and in debian everything is ok. I can read and write all directories with the pi user.
Node-red runs also under pi user but says "no permission".
What can I do?
It seems node-red overrides the debian pemissions or changes my path???
This might be a problem with the working directory that node-red is using. Even if it runs as the pi user, when it’s started by systemd, it can run from a different folder like /var/lib/node-red instead of /home/pi.
Try checking what folder node-red is actually working in, for example, by using a function or exec node to run pwd.
Also, try using a full path when saving the file, like:
/home/pi/Documents/output.pdf
instead of just output.pdf because node-red might be trying to save it in a place where it doesn’t have permission.
Did you install via Dave's Pi/Debian installer script? If so, you will be running Node-RED using systemd. What permissions and path Node-RED will get come from the systemd startup script.
Typically, I believe the script creates a separate user for Node-RED? Can't remember as I don't use it myself. But the path environment variable will not be the same as when you log into the Pi user since interactive logins get their path from shell/bash startup scripts.
Path should not impact access to folders however.
Depending on what you want to do with the PDF once you've created it, you could try using the /tmp folder which should be writable by all users (obviously check that it exists first).
I made an exec node and put 'pwd' in and now i know the working directory is '/var/lib/revpi-nodered'. Thanks to lukjasin! This directory is open to read and write.
But when i try to do this in '/home/pi' I have no permission in node-red. In bash on debian I have permission.
When I put a sudo in front e.g. 'sudo mkdir /home/test' I get a failure: the switch new privileges is set to on you can not act as root
it seems node-red is runnimg in a container
now where can I change this switch and how can I do this? It is no docker container.
This is an odd, non-standard location and would have required root/sudo to install there I think. /var/lib sub-folders should not, I think, be used as live folders, they are system folders AFAIK.
Actually, thinking about it and having tested my own install, I think that having the working directory as the Node-RED installation folder should be considered a BUG. I'll raise a separate thread to have it discussed.
Anyway, the location is non-standard but does not look like a container folder and does not look like a standard npm or Dave's script install either. So to sort this out, as jbudd has asked, we need to know how Node-RED is installed. Without that information, I doubt we can help much more.
Hi everybody,
it is an industry automation system based on raspberry pi 4 debian 12 bookworm with a preinstalled node-red 4.09.
Thats the reason I don't know how it was installed.
Maybe I'll try in the kunbus forum, they'll know how it was istalled.
