Re: sudo vs. gksu

Michael R. Head wrote:

On Sat, 2008-04-05 at 15:28 +0200, Mario Vukelic wrote:
On Sat, 2008-04-05 at 14:11 +0100, Tony Arnold wrote:
Can you explain how this problem is avoided with gksu, or gksudo? So
far as I can see using one of these causes the application to run with
UID of 0, i.e., root. The app has no knowledge of how it was invoked,
so any files is creates will be owned by root.

Your explanation applies to running any app, not just graphical ones.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/graphicalsudo

That page says that "sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list" is a good idea.
It isn't, and for the same reason graphical apps shouldn't be run
through sudo -- nano will create/edit extra files in your home
directory. In fact, there's a command called "sudoedit" which solves the
problem.

Note that with most such situations, it's only a problem if the first time
you use the app you do it with sudo. If you already own the .nano, or
whatever, files then they don't get "reowned" by root (at least not ime).
But I admit I fairly regularly discover some hidden file in my home
directory owned by root - and know that "sudo" was the reason.
--
derek


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