Re: gsu (Was Re: More Political Stuff)

[Joe Shaw <joe helixcode com>]

> ok.  I think for things like helix-update/redcarpet and the conf
> tools, the maintains of those packages should arrange for their
> desktop files to be wrapped by gsu automatically.  

I would love to do this, but I can't until it gets security audited. Right
now we use consolehelper on distributions that support it (Red Hat,
LinuxPPC, TurboLinux, ...) because it's pretty well tested.

> But ya, I agree, that if a user wants to run an arbitrary program as
> root (or another user) should have a nice tool to magically create 
> the desktop files for them.  I have some ideas already.

I'm a little nervous about doing this, because most stuff really shouldn't
be run as root. Stuff like helix-update, red carpet, the helix setup tools
are exceptions to this and that should be reflected in the .desktop
file.

Paranoia aside though, maybe we could put a checkbox in the desktop entry
editor thingy that would wrap the command in a gsu.

Joe