unable to run yozf if home directory is not writeable

[bb-Ricardo]

Describe the bug
It is not possible to start the command if the $HOME directory is not writeable

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

docker run --rm -it --entrypoint bash ubuntu:25.04
apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl
curl -L https://github.com/MAIF/yozefu/releases/download/v0.0.18/yozefu-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | tar -xzf -
useradd test
su - test
cd /
/yozf-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-0.0.18

Error message: Error: IO Error: Permission denied (os error 13)

Expected behavior
Inform the user what went wrong. Offer a command option to specify an alternative config directory location

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

version:
0.0.18

Additional context
I tried running it inside a Kubernetes pod which had readOnlyRootFilesystem enabled and only /tmp would be writeable.

[Mcdostone]

Hi again, thanks for your feedback. Yozefu relies on the XDG base directory specification to store logs, configuration and so on. In your context where you have a readonly root filesystem. it won't work indeed. I have changed 2 things:

1. I improved the error message when the home directory is readonly:

Error: IO Error: Failed to create the filters directory '/home/user/.config/yozefu/filters': Permission denied (os error 13). Check you have write permissions.

2. You can now specify a custom config directory. This directory contains the configuration file, themes file, logs and the wasm search filters. To do so:

• use the --config-dir argument,
• or define a YOZEFU_CONFIG_DIR environment variable.

# with the CLI
yozefu --config-dir /tmp/yozefu --cluster localhost

# or with an environment variable

export YOZEFU_CONFIG_DIR=/tmp/yozefu
yozefu --cluster localhost

Let me know if you have any questions/comments.

[bb-Ricardo]

Hi,

This again appears to be a good improvement. I'm just wondering if logs should by default be stored in the vonfig directory. Or is it possible to define the locations of logs and exports in the configuration? I just discovered this tool two days ago, sorry for this questions.
Can you define a separate location of the config file via env variable?

The idea here is:

• tool is running inside a container
• only /tmp is writeable
• would create the base config during container build
• would mount the actual config via config map
• specify the location of the config via ENV variable
• define locations of exports and logs either in the configuration or via env variables

Or is this too specific?

[Mcdostone]

So far, this is how you can control things:

	Default behavior	defined via CLI	defined via env variable	defined via configuration file
Workspace (or config dir)	~/.config/io.maif.yozefu/	--config-dir	YOZEFU_CONFIG_DIR	No
Configuration file	${workspace}/config.json	--config-file	N/A	No
Logs file	${workspace}/application.log	No	No	No
Export directory	$PWD/export-{datetime-now}.json	--output	No	Yes

• You can define the logs file when you specify the workspace.
• You can specify a configuration file location with the --config-file flag.
• You can define the export file location via --output or the configuration file (export_directory json property).

Regarding the logs file location. I can make something for you. Could you give me more details about your need ?

• Where you would like to save the logs instead ?
• Maybe you want to send the logs to /dev/null ?
• Or maybe you want to define a specific volume for the logs that is different from the configuration volume ?
• Do you want to define the logs file location with an env variable, via a CLI flag or the config file, all of them ?

It could help me understand better if you give me your k8s deployment and the way you imagine running Yozefu.

[bb-Ricardo]

Wow, thank you for this detailed answer.

to my understanding log files are quite different then config. And I (as a user) would not expect to find log files in my config directory. Also size and growing of these logs could cause trouble with uiser quotas if this is not know to the user.

I would treat it similar to the --export option. Could be configured in the config and as --logfile to specify location on demand.

What do you think?

[Mcdostone]

Sounds ok to me:

• --log-file flag
• or the env variable YOZEFU_LOG_FILE
• or the config file with the log_file json property

The precedence is:

CLI flag > environment variable > config file > ${workspace}/application.log

	Default behavior	defined via CLI	defined via env variable	defined via configuration file
Workspace (or config dir)	~/.config/io.maif.yozefu/	--config-dir	YOZEFU_CONFIG_DIR	No
Configuration file	${workspace}/config.json	--config-file	N/A	No
Log file	${workspace}/application.log	--log-file	YOZEFU_LOG_FILE	jsonpath /log_file
Export directory	$PWD/export-{datetime-now}.json	--output	No	jsonpath /export_directory

[bb-Ricardo]

Hey, it doesn't need to be are, it could de and. Supporting all the options would give the use the freedom do configure it the way they want to.

On the topic of order (taken from stack overflow but it sounds like the most sane approach to me)

Precedence of options:
If you specify an option by using one of the environment variables described in this topic, it overrides any value loaded from a profile in the configuration file.

If you specify an option by using a parameter on the CLI command line, it overrides any value from either the corresponding environment variable or a profile in the configuration file.

[Mcdostone]

v0.0.19 is available!