Re: Please proofread beep debconf template

[Gerfried Fuchs <rhonda@deb.at>]

        Hi!

 First of all, thanks for the fast response. And also thanks for Ccing
me as I'm not subscribed but haven't mentioned in my mail, so thanks. :)

* Justin B Rye <jbr@edlug.org.uk> [2008-07-28 19:05:37 CEST]:
> Gerfried Fuchs quoted:
> > _Choices: usable for all, usable for group audio, usable only for root
> > _Description: Install beep as:
> >  beep must be run as root since it needs to access the speaker hardware.
> >  There are several possibilities to make the program usable:  Either only
> >  for root (no suid bit at all), executable only by users of the group
> >  audio, or usable for all.
> >  .
> >  Since each program set as suid root can be a security risk this is not done
> >  by default.  However, the program is quite small (~150 lines of code), so it
> >  is fairly easy to verify the safety of the code yourself, if you don't
> >  trust the package maintainer's judgement.
> 
> Well, it's all grammatical and intelligible,

 Thanks. :)

> but it could do with rephrasing.  How about something more like
> this...
> 
>   _Choices: usable for all, usable for group audio, usable only for root
>   _Description: Install beep as:
>    Since beep needs access to the speaker hardware, normal users will not be
>    able to use it unless the setuid bit is set. There are three options for its
>    permissions:
>    -rwsr-xr-x root:audio = setuid root for all users
>    -rwsr-xr-- root:audio = setuid root for members of the group "audio"
>    -rwxr-xr-x root:audio = non-setuid, and unusable for normal users
>    .
>    The third option is the default, since any program that grants elevated
>    privileges is a potential security risk. However, the program is quite small
>    (~150 lines of code), so it is fairly easy to verify the safety of the code
>    yourself, if you don't trust the package maintainer's judgement.

 Hmm, that goes back to something more technical which I wanted to avoid
to go to. It shouldn't be limited to people who are well aware of the
terms yet - and especially your suggestion will render badly, it won't
be preformated in the output like you would like it.

 Hope you don't take it in the bad, but this is not the direction I
would like to go with the question. And like said, I wouldn't even know
currently how to format that, even if I would think going that direction
would be something to consider.

 Thanks anyway. :)
Rhonda