Re: adding user to package-forreign group
* Micha Lenk <micha@lenk.info> [071129 17:27]:
[snip]
>
> But prior to releasing the package I am seeking for feedback here,
> whether that really is a good idea. Is there anything that I missed? Is
> it okay to mess around with other package's group memberships? Any other
> comments?
>
> Please give me feedback about whether to proceed this way or not.
>
> Regards
> Micha
>
This is somewhat of a hack, but since we are talking about a user
"chipcard" and a group "cyberjack", can you have udev assign ownership
to chipcard:cyberjack? I believe udev can handle separate files in
/etc/udev/rules.d/ so that the libchipcard package can have its own file
that adds chipcard as the owner without changing the group assigned by a
previous udev rule. This would allow anyone who follows directions
found on the internet to still have it work, but for libchipcard to be
able to function without possibly interfering with an existing user
cyberjack that is unrelated to this smart card reader. (I agree with
another post in this thread about not adding chipcard to the cyberjack
group unless you are sure that the cyberjack group is only used for the
purpose you think it is.)
Martin, does the udev rule for the Cyberjack specify root as owner, or
does it only specify the group? I've only done simple things with udev,
so I'm not sure how two rules specifying conflicting owners would work.
Micha, if there is more to the cyberjack software than just a kernel
module and udev rule, and if you had the inclination, you could package
cyberjack as a separate Debian package, and then you would have control
of how the udev rules were set up for both packages. Debian users who
install an official Debian cyberjack package (from main or non-free)
will, in general, expect the debian package to "get it right" and will
not be messing around with instructions found on the web. Proper
instructions in README.Debian in both packages should clarify any
ambiguities.
My opinion is that the Debian package should make things work for
Debian, even when deviating from published instructions for non-Debian
users. This gets trickier, as you are experiencing, when a Debian
package has to interact with non-Debian software, but if you package
cyberjack for Debian, that minimizes the impact on upstream support, as
most naive Debian users will contact Debian first, and the less naive
will read README.Debian.
<disclaimer>
I've never used libchipcard or a Cyberjack reader, nor have I looked at
the instructions for installing or using either.
</disclaimer>
...Marvin
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