Re: libgnomesu [was Re: Proposed modules: my consensus so far]

[Hongli Lai <h lai chello nl>]

Carlos Garnacho wrote:
> However, even knowing how hard is to implement
> _with_pipes (and I know it, I've reimplemented this
> part in GST some times, plus my system-auth-agent
> try), I consider its lack in libgnomesu a showstopper,
> as GST *needs* it for communicating with the backends

We have two alternatives:
1. Turn libgnomesu into an authentication library instead of an 
authentication *wrapper* library. This way I have full control over the 
setuid binaries, and I can implement pipe support.
Downsides:
- sudo and ssh support will never be possible.

2. Modify sudo, ssh, etc. so they can read the password from and provide 
status information to something other than the console or stdin/stdout.
Downsides/issues:
- Current generation distributions do not include it, and probably never 
will (they usually only provide bugfix releases for packages). It will 
take some time before people have these new versions.
- Will the sudo/ssh authors support this?
- What about other Unices? Is there only one sudo, or does each Unix has 
its own sudo?
- I've researched using $SSH_ASKPASS, but it just doesn't work well, 
unfortunately.

Or: just don't use libgnomesu in GST. Only use it in apps that don't 
need ssh remote authentication.