Is there a manual procedure I could follow to install a plugin?
@mrvdb: Not that I'm aware of. However, if you're up for the pain, you can of course start packaging extensions for etherpad-lite.
Even if this means redoing it on upgrading the package it's worth it sometimes. Having the secure base install is nice, but without /any/ option to get a plugin to work, most people will need to choose another install method than this package.
And people are free to do so.
I saw someone mentioning manually putting a
.ep_initialized
file in the plugin folder, but that didn't seem to work for me. Also, given that the upstream issue has been open for more than 2 years now, a workaround would perhaps be fitting.
The problem is, that etherpad-lite doesn't really have a "plugin directory", but pollutes its base install directory when installing plugins.
That being said: You're free to modify this PKGBUILD for your own purposes of course. From a packaging standpoint it makes no sense though as it is unsafe to use and would basically require manual intervention all the time.
If you have some time to spend it is always a good idea to help upstream figure out how to solve the plugin directory issue and fix this problem at the root instead of making your system less secure.
Pinned Comments
dvzrv commented on 2017-12-22 16:18
I updated to 1.6.2.
Please note: From now on, etherpad-lite is relying on systemd-tmpfiles and systemd-sysusers and the setting of a dynamic StateDirectory according to its service file. The scripts delivered by upstream are no longer run.
These new features make the package more secure, but the new way of installing it also renders its content static (i.e. the installation of plugins is currently not possible, as the installation folder is now owned by root).
Before the included npm package had the possibility to install all over the install directory, leading to folders and files not taken care of or cleaned up by pacman.
Although the new state is somewhat unfortunate, I hope you can appreciate it nonetheless from a viewpoint of this now being a "clean(er) install".
I referred to upstream about the changes to maybe inspire a change in the way plugins should be installed to a dedicated (settable) directory.
The way etherpad-lite is installed now is still far from being perfect.