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Re: (Possible) menu code rewrite



On Wed, Jul 17, 2002 at 01:02:45PM +0100, Phil Cowans wrote:
> 1. Does the config file explicitly prevent this user from changing to 
> the required uid?
> 
> if no: don't display menu item and don't worry any more.
> if yes: go on to (2)
> 
> 2. Is a suitable sudo-equivalent installed, and is the user allowed to 
> use it to change to the required uid?
> 
> if no:  go to (3)
> if yes: display a menu item which runs the programme through the 
> sudo-equivalent
> 
> 3. Is a suitable su-equivalent installed?
> 
> if no:  don't display a menu item.
> if yes: display a menu item to run the programme through the su-equivalent.

Horribly complex.  What is wrong with having a Unix group 'admin' and only
show menu items if the user belongs to group admin?  If the overhead of
maintaining members of an admin group is something that a sys admin doesn't
want to bother with, the sys admin could simply decide (via some option
in /etc/menu-methods/menu.config perhaps) that all users on the system
should see all admin menu entries.  Or if a particular user doesn't want to
pester the admin to add them to group admin, yet does have root access
somehow, then the same config variable should be settable under ~/.menu/

> I personally think that predefined categories is a bad idea as it makes 
> assumptions about what novice users can do / want to do, and also 
> assumes that they all want to do the same things. I'd agree with the 
> Gnome Interface Team on this one.

I think predefined categories are fine so long as the lines are clearly
drawn.  "Needs root to run" is a pretty clearly defined category.  Other
clearly defined categories are "is a Debian Jr. user" or "is a Debian-Med
user".

Ben
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