Re: master c86995d07e9: Enable code block evaluation when generating .org manuals

[Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net>]

To Eli,

AFAIU, emacs-30 branch will be cut next week.  This discussion is what
is holding us from merging the released Org 9.7 , which we would like to
see in Emacs 30.

Should we wait until this discussion settles before we merge?

Robert Pluim <rpluim@gmail.com> writes:

> This has set off my paranoia alarm. So anyone that manages to
> sneak malicious emacs lisp code into the org manual gets to run that
> code on the machines of everyone who builds emacs from source?
>
> (I know, I know, we already run emacs lisp code during the build. But
> it comes from .el files, generally, not documentation).

Strictly speaking, pure TeX code (which can be placed directly inside
TexInfo manuals) is also executed when generating documentation. At the
end, TeX is a complete programming language.  And there are ways to
exploit it.

In any case, there is a reason we want to enable generated content in
the manuals. We do not do it just for fun.

The installed change allows generating parts of the manual directly from
the Elisp values defined in Org mode .el files. This greatly reduces
maintenance burden for certain parts of the code that must be updated
every single time we add a new option.

IMHO, the potential increased chance of malicious code slipping through
the review process is greatly outweighed by the decreased maintenance of
that (and potentially other) part(s) of the Org manual.

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>