Quoting Brian (2019-05-02 19:35:07)
> On Thu 02 May 2019 at 17:09:26 +0200, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> > Quoting Brian (2019-05-02 16:01:31)
> > > Which is why I have a udev rule with
> > >
> > > SUBSYSTEM=="block", ATTRS{removable}=="1", GROUP="floppy"
> > >
> > > in it. I might stop doing that if its use was demonstrated to have
> > > an adverse effect on other things I do.
> >
> > Good for you that you have a hack that works. Really!
>
> Labelling it a "hack" is not something I find sufficient to cause me
> to abandon a technique that makes copying to a removable device safer.
Sorry - I meant "hack" as a power user compliment.
> > Reason I discourage that approach more generally is not that I want
> > to "flame" anyone (as in that bugreport you referenced aboe), but
> > that I seek ways reasonable also for non-technical users: Your udev
> > hack is more (not less) complicated for a non-technical user to do
> > right compared to my one-liner sudo+cp command. Your approach is
> > sensible if doing _many_ such operations, but not when doing few, as
> > a beginner.
>
> I am unfamiliar with sudo but didn't think sudo+cp prevented my
> accidentally wiping a system disk.
It doesn't.
You and I are both power user. We use (sudo or) su, or log in as root.
That is needed to tune our systems e.g. by adding a udev rule.
Last summer I was in Taiwan at Debconf, together with many other power
users. Imagine I had forgotten my laptop at home, went out and bought a
cheap taiwanese laptop, and wanted to install Debian on it. I would
then go over to one of my power user friends with my new laptop and a
USB stick. I could then ask my friend to...
* Reconfigure their system to include a udev rule
so that writing to USB flash disks did not require root,
and then run cp as regular user (even a guest account!)
* Run a cp command as root.
Which would be most sensible?
Which would be most sensible to ask a non-technical friend to do?
Yes, your approach works, and is one that I might use myself and might
recommend to power users for their own pleasure. But not something I
would recommend to power user for a one-time need, not something I would
recommend non-technical users themselves (how *I* might tune their
systems if granted root access is a very different story).
- Jonas
--
* Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
* Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/
[x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private
signature.asc
Description: signature
