feature request: control environment of external processes

On Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 8:41 AM Hauke Brandes <hauke.brandes at parsqube.de> wrote: > Hello list, > > I would like to suggest an enhancement for the proc:system/execute/fork > family of functions: it should be possible to control the environment > variables of the external process. At the moment, the environment is > always inherited from the calling basex process, as far as I can tell. > > There are several reasons why it is desirable to control the environment > of external processes: > > * set variables to values that are not known statically when starting basex > * avoid information leaking (restrict environment to the minimal > required subset) > * control the PATH of the external process > > It would be great to have an additional, optional entry in the $options > map (maybe named "env" or "environment") that contains a map of > environment variables for the external process. If absent, the current > behavior (inherited environment) should be used. If the option is given, > **only** the environment variables in the map should be used for the > external process. > > Effectively, the "env"/"environment" option would behave as if it had a > default value of `map:merge( available-environment-variables() ! > map:entry(., environment-variable(.)) )` > > The ProcessBuilder in Java should allow for a straightforward > implementation. > > What do you think? > Cheers, > Hauke > >