-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Mon, Jan 13, 2003 at 12:05:50AM +0100, Michael Schwendt wrote: > > > Don't switch to user root, *log in* as root. Use either of > > > these: > > > > > > $ su --login > > > $ su -l > > > $ su - > > > > This is one possible solution, depending on what the user wants to do. > > However, it is often undesireable, for a variety of reasons. For > > example, > > -cut- > > Derek, forgive my ignorance, but above I see a user who asks > specifically why turning to root with su inherits the normal user's > path. Hence I point him to a desirable (!) option that would solve > his particular problem. Yeah, except as I already said, if he wants to run X apps as root, your solution may not work, which certainly would make it undesireable. As it happens, it seems to work fine on RH8; but with older releases of Red Hat (7.2, for example, and many other distros, as well as other Unix platforms) it often does not. It has to do with whether or not the X authentication is automatically handled correctly for the user. It would seem that the version of su shipped with RH8 has been patched to copy the user's MIT magic cookies into a temporary file in root's home directory, and set the XAUTHORITY environment variable appropriately. After the su session is terminated, the temporary file is removed. However, this behavior is relatively new... Historically, this has not been the case, and in order for X applications to work properly after "su -" one had to copy the magic cookies manually, via the xauth utility. I was surprised to find that it did work without any additional manipulation of X authentication cookies on the part of the user. As I have said, historically this would have been necessary, and it's very likely that if the reader were to try this elsewhere, it would NOT work. Additionally, there are other circumstances under which this could break things, though such other problems tend to be environment-specific and hence hard to enumerate. The point is, even if your solution does meet the OP's needs, it's still worth noting that it may break things elsewhere... > Therefore I find the beginning of your comment (or should I say > "correction") inappropriate. You're free to expand on alternative > solutions, though. ...so no, it wasn't inappropriate. Also note that I was not correcting you. As anyone can plainly see above, I explicitly stated that the solution you provided was a possible solution to the problem, and then went on to "expand on alternative solutions", as you so graciously permitted me. You're being oversensitive. Please chill. - -- Derek D. Martin http://www.pizzashack.org/ GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE+Ig3WHEnASN++rQIRAiR/AJ4yL7YSR5XiaZFXaqC5i10jVEQwPgCfZkSg vayM7W6rd624jdoWrq8XKZc= =bfpH -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Psyche-list mailing list Psyche-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/psyche-list
