kibana --version shouldn't produce permission error

[jacobweber]

Kibana version: 5.2.0, 5.4.0

Elasticsearch version: 5.2.0, 5.4.0

Server OS version: CentOS 6.9

Browser version: N/A

Browser OS version: N/A

Original install method (e.g. download page, yum, from source, etc.): yum

Description of the problem including expected versus actual behavior:
When I run kibana --version as a user other than kibana, I get a "permission denied" message. Very minor, but confusing.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install kibana via yum.
2. Install x-pack as kibana user: sudo -u kibana bin/kibana-plugin install x-pack
3. Run /usr/share/kibana/bin/kibana --version as a user other than root or kibana.

Errors in browser console (if relevant): N/A

Provide logs and/or server output (if relevant):
Result is:

5.4.0
fs.js:641
  return binding.open(pathModule._makeLong(path), stringToFlags(flags), mode);
                 ^

Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/usr/share/kibana/optimize/.babelcache.json'
    at Error (native)
    at Object.fs.openSync (fs.js:641:18)
    at Object.fs.writeFileSync (fs.js:1347:33)
    at process.save (/usr/share/kibana/node_modules/babel-register/lib/cache.js:45:16)
    at emitOne (events.js:96:13)
    at process.emit (events.js:188:7)
    at process.exit (internal/process.js:164:15)
    at Command.<anonymous> (/usr/share/kibana/node_modules/commander/index.js:820:13)
    at emitNone (events.js:91:20)
    at Command.emit (events.js:185:7)

If I run sudo -u kibana /usr/share/kibana/bin/kibana --version, I don't get this error.

The permissions on the directory seem correct:

$ ls -al /usr/share/kibana/optimize/
total 2660
drwxr-xr-x  3 kibana kibana    4096 May 31 13:31 .
drwxr-xr-x 10 root   root      4096 May 31 13:31 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1 kibana kibana 2707748 Jul 22 21:44 .babelcache.json
drwxr-xr-x  3 kibana kibana    4096 May 31 13:34 bundles

although I ran sudo chown -R kibana:kibana /usr/share/kibana/optimize/ just to be sure.

Related to #8818 and other issues. But I think I'm doing things the way the documentation recommends. And I'm not having errors in Kibana itself.

[jbudz]

All the server code is ran through babel, which unfortunately writes to a file owned by the kibana user. This does look like a bug.

A workaround until this is fixed can be something like
apt-cahe policy kibana

[ghost]

chown -R kibana:kibana /opt/kibana/optimize/bundles
chmod g+s /opt/kibana/optimize/bundles

[jbudz]

babel/register was removed starting in 7.10 with #79379 so babel writes should no longer be a source of permission errors. +1 on the comment above as a workaround in the interim. Closing this out