Executing with root priviliges
I'm in the process of writing (and with help, packaging) a piece
of software which needs to be executed as root. It happens to be
a graphical app for configuring a laptop, and is the sort of thing
that regular non-root users on a "single user" system would want
to run.
Looking through installed programs in my Gnome menu, I see several
apps like this which are wrapped with a call to Gksu. After talking
with several different people, I see a few different preferred ways
to gain root priviliges for apps like this...
- gksu, users who want to really run it as root
- su, users who refuse to install any excess X11 apps(?!)
- sudo, users who've given themselves not-quite root access to
certain apps or passwordless access (that's my camp)
Anyway, I don't want my app to have a dependancy on gksu, as it
technically doesn't have anything to do with my application, and
from just talking to a few people appears to not be a universally
accepted solution (I'm sure there are other alternatives that
people prefer).
So, my question is...is there, or should there be, some virtual
package or system-wide or user-wide preference for gaining root
priviliges under X11? What's the best current way to get this
into the menu system with the least amount of pain for both
the packager and the user?
--
- David A. Riggs <riggs at csee dot wvu dot edu>
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