Re: Should su-to-root be shipped in a separate package?
> Even better, given the tiny size and the general functionality provided by
> su-to-root, could it moved to debianutils? Then it would be essential and
> no dependencies would be required. If we're going to standardize on it
> throughout the distribution (which I believe is the right thing to do), it
> makes sense to me to put it there.
Total size, in bytes, of the files relevant to su-to-root (script, man pages,
translations): 34441
Using su-to-root would have the benefit that no matter what DE (Desktop
Environment) the user uses the application will have the possibility to be
ran as root. The main problem right now is that several dependencies exist
just to fullfill the su wrapper needs.
Picking a random package as example is wireshark. Even though it can be used
to view logs its main functionality requires the application to be run as
root, and because it is a GTK2-based program it Recommends: gksu
If gksu was not a package but a binary provided by some package any/most
GTK2-based programs depend on it would be no problem, but since that's not
the case it requires the user to install gksu.
On this situation if wireshark was using su-to-root as the su wrapper me as a
KDE user would have no need to install gksu at all just to run wireshark as
root. I can of course use my FOOsu wrapper solution and manually execute
wireshark as root but that's not what the .desktop file does.
And about its inclusion on debianutils, according to its description[0]
su-to-root seems not to fit there. Of course the description can be changed
for su-to-root's inclusion.
> I don't think this is necessary. su-to-root falls back to su if none of
> the other packages exist, and su is essential. Similarly, under X, it
> falls back to x-terminal-emulator if none of the other packages exist, and
> any X environment should have x-terminal-emulator.
Ack, a Recommends: should be fine then?
[0]
> This package provides a number of small utilities which are used
> primarily by the installation scripts of Debian packages, although
> you may use them directly.
Cheers,
--
Atomo64 - Raphael
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