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Re: [users] Re: Time to fight for our beloved DEB format!



On Tue, Jul 03, 2001 at 12:40:05PM -0500, Steve Greenland wrote:
> As a specific question: what is the big deal over the uid? I don't want
> to force it on existing systems, but I don't see how changing it for new
> installs is that big a compromise.

It effectively makes uid 1 a second root account.  It may not
_technically_ be root, but if you can replace a system binary and get
root to run your trojaned version, what's the difference?

> Ditto runlevels: of course we aren't
> going to mess with existing setups, but I personally would rather the
> defaults were what was in the LSB: the benefit of having 4 identical
> runlevels has so far escaped me.

You may have 4 identical runlevels and I may have 4 identical
runlevels, but debian's policy leaves it up to the admin to decide
what each runlevel means.  If LSB makes proclamations on the meaning
of various runlevels, then the admin has to adhere to those meanings
or risk losing compatibility with LSB packages.

(Much the same situation as with people who respond to questions
about 'how do I get rid of this GUI login screen?' by saying 'change
to runlevel 2' - they're making assumptions about what each runlevel
means.  Even on a RH system, it's not guaranteed that rl5 = X and
rl2 = not X.  The admin might have shuffled symlinks because he
wanted it the other way around.)



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