Re: Which checks should we mandate for source operations in shell scripts
On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 09:49:29PM +0200, Marc Haber wrote:
> It has (finally, and to late) occurred to me that
>
> |# back up /etc/default/foo
> |cp /etc/default/foo ~/foo
> |(try something in /etc/default)
> |sudo mv ~/foo /etc/default/foo
>
> will place a file owned by my "normal" user into /etc/default where it
> might be used from an (unchanged) init script[1].
This may well be intentional.
Let's say the local root runs several services for the system's users,
but doesn't want to maintain one particular service (because root is
unfamiliar with that service, or considers it too labor intensive to
maintain, or whatever). So maintaining that service is delegated to
another user who specifically requested that the service be provided.
One valid option to do so is to chown or chgrp the configuration files
in question so that the user with delegated privileges has the ability
to change the configuration file, and then also allow that user to
restart the service through whatever means.
If init (or whatever) scripts start failing in that case, then Debian is
overruling local policy. That's never a good thing.
So no, I don't think we should check this, unless upstream added the
check (because patching away such features is not usually a good idea).
--
Could you people please use IRC like normal people?!?
-- Amaya Rodrigo Sastre, trying to quiet down the buzz in the DebConf 2008
Hacklab
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