dear darcs devs,

darcs changes --xml-output
--repo=http://www.common-lisp.net/project/cl-wdim/darcs/pvez/

fails with:

darcs failed:  Not a repository:
http://www.common-lisp.net/project/cl-wdim/darcs/pvez/ (Failed to
create temporary file darcs: permission denied (Permission denied))

the problem is that it starts walking the parent directories until it
finds a '_darcs' dir because it assumes local operation. the result is
that it reaches "/" where it can not write.

this happens with the current stable branch and it was working with a
later version of darcs.

hth,

Good find, thanks.

I had some trouble reproducing this on a Mac at first.  The trick is to create a
directory which you cannot write into.

Notes:
- the --xml-output does not seem to make a difference
- this affects both stable and unstable, but luckily, it is still working in
1.0.9.  I wonder what has changed in between, and also what on earth it's trying
to write (probably stuff that it's downloading)
- it really is about remote repositories and not just any other repo

I don't think the walking the parent directories (which it does do) story is
quite right, however.  It seems like just a simple matter of trying to write in
a non-writeable directory.

this works
----------
cd /tmp
mkdir nowrite
cd nowrite
mkdir write
chmod u-x .
cd write
darcs changes --repo=http://www.darcs.net

but this does not
-----------------
cd /tmp
mkdir nowrite
cd nowrite
darcs changes --repo=http://www.darcs.net

See also issue76 and issue250

I've manually tested that this resolved-in-unstable now.