Re: [Usability] doing root stuff as normal user without shell or any obscure methods - increasing usability with just a text box

[Brian Skahan <bskahan etria com>]

On Wed, 2004-09-22 at 14:46 +0200, David Christian Berg wrote:
> ____________________________________________________________________
> Permission Denied!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> You don't have permissions to view [run,edit] this file [program, user]!
>
> View [Run, Edit] file [program, folder]
> as        [User ComboEntry]
> Password: [Password Entry]
>
>                                  &#-1;&#-1;                    [Cancel] [OK]
> _____________________________________________________________________

the way sudo works, please correct me since I haven't looked in over a year, is that I as my user:

% sudo shutdown -r now

it checks to see if I a] have sudo access to a user (like root) who can do that or b] looks to see if I (or a group I'm in) has been given explicit permission on the shutdown command.

normally there's no reason for me to sudo -u someoneelse, it seems like a real outside case to me, that probably doesn't need to be worked into the desktop.

However, the /etc/sudoers file is absurdly cryptic and if GNOME were to use gksudo widely there would need to be a UI for managing the complexities of sudoers (probably just as an extension of g-s-t user/group module).

-Brian

--
Brian Skahan <bskahan etria com>
Etria, LLP

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