On Sun, Jun 22, 2003 at 11:32:57AM +0200, Thomas Hood wrote: > On Sun, 2003-06-22 at 01:02, Xavier Roche wrote: > > There are other problems : for example it seems that the system > > changes the /dev/ttyXX or /dev/pts/XX ownership depending on who is being > > logged in.. > > To tell the truth, I didn't realize that so many files in /dev/ > were being fiddled. Obviously, one solution to the problem is > to have a separate writable /dev/ filesystem, e.g., devfs. It's a historical thing. When you login you are given ownership of your tty device. The 'mesg' command twiddles these permissions so you can control who can write to your terminals. More recently, some distributions change ownership of cdroms and other devices to allow certain other things. For remote logins devpts solves the problem. I remember (a long time ago) being locked out of my machine because a read-only /dev prevented me logging in (login would complain about not being able to change ownership). > The question is: Should we concede that a separate /dev/ fs is > required for running with a read-only root filesystem, or should we > take steps to eliminate fiddling with /dev/ files? I haven't > looked into this question at all, since I have been satisfied with > devfs. It is much easier. I remember once arranging for /dev to be a ramdisk to solve the problem. The number of places that touch /dev would be many. > It is worth filing a report to ask that the script not try to > change the permissions and ownership of the pipe if it is not > necessary to do so, and that it tolerate failure. I'll file it. Tolerating failure would at least allow you to test with minimal problems. -- Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org> http://svana.org/kleptog/ > "the West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or > religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. > Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." > - Samuel P. Huntington
Attachment:
pgp4ighYOwvG2.pgp
Description: PGP signature