Re: parted is ALMOST suitable
On Wed 09 Nov 2016 at 11:27:11 +0100, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 09, 2016 at 10:12:13AM +0000, Brian wrote:
> > On Wed 09 Nov 2016 at 09:48:01 +0100, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> >
> > > On Tue, Nov 08, 2016 at 08:39:51PM +0000, Brian wrote:
> > > > On Tue 08 Nov 2016 at 14:41:45 -0500, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > >>>>>>> *HOWEVER* parted requires root privileges. That is not acceptable.
> > > > > >>>>>>> Suggestions?
> > > > > >>>>>>> TIA
> > > > > > Futzing with partitions is the admin's job.
> > > > >
> > > > > Could be, but it's not (g)parted's job to enforce these kinds of rules:
> > > > > that's what Unix permissions (and Linux's capabilities) are for.
> > > > >
> > > > > It's OK to add a warning and prompt the user to make sure he really
> > > > > means to do that, but there's no point *preventing* the user from
> > > > > shooting his own foot with this tool if he can do it with other
> > > > > tools anyway.
> > > >
> > > > Users here get no opportunity to shoot themselves or anyone else in the
> > > > foot. Access to raw disks is over my dead body. So I do not understand
> > > > your point.
> > >
> > > C'mon. Cut the drama. Dead bodies and that.
> >
> > It's a turn of phrase. Sometimes used with a touch of humour.
> >
> > > As if "raw disk" were some kind of sacred stuff. In my case they are
> > > simple files on disk (disk images). Shall I have to become root every
> > > time I have to write a partition table to that? No. I just use fdisk.
> > >
> > > It's the job of file (device) permissions to ensure that. Or are you
> > > going to patch around bash's redirection operator too, to keep "users"
> > > from shooting themselves in the foot by issuing
> > >
> > > echo "mumble" > /dev/sda2
> > >
> > > Not really.
> >
> > That gives "-bash: /dev/sda2: Permission denied" for me with a fixed
> > disk. It's the same for a removable disk. The system came like that.
>
> Hopefully. But that's not because bash checks that (as parted is).
> It's because the permissions on the device file are set right!
udev doesn't come into the picture for removable disks? It did on
pre-Jessie.
> IOW, it's not the application's job (bash or parted), it's the OS's
> job (with the sysadmin's help) to check access permissions.
>
> BTW it's very easy to fool the application itself (and this migh be
> a perverse "solution" to Richard's problem). Just run gparted under
> fakeroot. It won't convey you read/write permissions you don't have,
> but it will fool gparted to think it's running as root:
Would you please give an example of when it is possible to fool the
application and obtain somthing you otherwise wouldn't obtain as a
user.
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