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Proposal: su-to-root should be replaced with a system managed by alternatives.



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SUMMARY: su-to-root from the menu package is a nasty hack that should be replaced by a mechinism managed by /etc/alternatives 

PREMISE: The decision of which User interface people see when running a X11 application that requires elevated privilages is a combination of system policy and user preference.

A quick apt-cache search reveals several programs that can provide "run-as" functionality.

su
sux
sudo
gksu
gksudo
kdesu
calife
chiark-really

While you could add cases for All of the above to su-to-root this is non-obvious to administrators while the alternatives system is quite obvious and exists pretty much for this purpose.  There's also the issue of who knows what crazy stuff the SELinux people will come up with to handle their requirements.

Basically what I'm suggesting is that the mechinism to get root access be selectable by the system administrator and user via alternatives in the same way x-www-browser.

-- 
Grant Diffey aka "nevyn"
http://www.computerbank.org.au/
http://melbourne.wireless.org.au/

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