Re: File manager tree.

[Tom Gilbert <gilbertt tomgilbert freeserve co uk>]

On Mon, 31 May 1999 bob@kehs.ksd.org wrote:

->On Mon, 31 May 1999, Guillermo S. Romero / unnamed / Familia Romero wrote:
->
->> >a) TURN THAT DAMN 'RUNNING AS ROOT' ERROR MESSAGE OFF
->> 
->> Every time somebody says that, the coders should add another window. "Do no
->> run as root" -click- "I told you do not run as root" -click- "Yeah, again,
->> do not run as root" -click-.
->> 
->> Please, no more "remove the root warning". Read books or e-docs about why
->> you use root to setup the machine, but not as normal user. Or try the
->> special manual for this case: "rm -rf /*". It is a very interesting manual,
->> you learn... very fast. And you never forget. ;]
->
->You NEED to be root for some things... Creating accounts comes to mind. If
->you are smart, you wont "rm -rf /*". "adduser bob" and "rm -rf /*" arnt
->verry close. Pull the message out of gmc and put it into its own program.
->Then for the people who know what they are doing can remove the message by
->removing it out of the session. The people who know what they are doing
->dont see an anoying message, and the people who dont, get a nice warning
->message. If a user knows enough to pull the message out of the session,
->then they know enough not to mess up.

Couple of points here. I agree that the user should have the choice about
how his software works for him. If someone wants to use software in a
certain way - whatever the risks - he/she should be allowed to. If someone
wants to log in as root and run gmc in a highly dangerous scenario, he/she
should be able to. It is the perogative of the user. The box _should_ have
a "Don't warn me again" box IMHO. It is enough that gmc has _tried_ to
warn them. It should not annoy them, and it should especially *not* try to
control the way the user works. That is the fault of Windows, and why I
moved away.

On the other hand, logging in as root and running x and gnome as root is
(IMO) absolute, total madness. Very dangerous, ill advised, naughty, and
above all, unnecessary. You should always run gnome as a normal user, the
same goes for X. If you want to do stuff as root, bring up a terminal and
su. If you can't handle working in a terminal to move files etc. then
having su'ed, type gmc in that terminal. Then you'll get *one* gmc window
running as root, which limits the risk. At least the whole _environment_
won't be root. In this situation, the dialog box should not be necessary,
as the user has purposefully made a choice to be root.

I personally su to root in the terminal and do all root-stuff I need to in
that terminal then close it. The trouble with gmc as root, is that an
accidental click in the left-pane rearranges your entire filesystem.
Nasty.

In case someone _accidentally_ runs gmc as root, how about giving it a red
border or some-such if running as root? It gives you a visual cue, without
requiring a dialog-box acknowledgement.

Cheers.

-- 
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     | Tom Gilbert, England                   pingu@linuxfreak.com   |
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