Jeremy Huntwork wrote these words on 11/24/05 21:23 CST: > One > point that hint me really hard was this: > > "Let's say I have written a program that you would like to use. To make > it easier for you I come over to install it for you. Would you give me > the root account and then leave the room ? No ? Then why do you give it > to complete strangers who you have never seen in your life, to install > software packages pulled from some Internet server, that come with no > warranty and don't even list their contents in the README, although they > will happily spread them all over your system ?
Well, with all due respect to the author, I think the above paragraph is ridiculous. Who in their right mind installs an unknown package on their system, without doing preliminary investigation first? Not me. Any package that I am not familiar with is scrutinized carefully before root is allowed to place files. It is not difficult to install a package into a private dir with an unprivileged user. In fact, it is easy. This should always be done first with unknown packages. This is what should be taught to beginner users (note I said beginner users, because that would be the only type that would just up and "install anything pulled from some Internet server"). > It is a mystery why Unix admins who wouldn't even trust their employer > with more than a normal user account carelessly execute complex and > incomprehensible installation scripts with full root rights." Again, hogwash. No admin worth a shit would ever do this. > I wasn't thinking of it as a gimmick or ploy. It really wasn't at all > about limiting the control of the user, but indeed strengthening it. My > focus with including this wasn't about package management, but about > helping the user control how packages are installed. Hand-holding isn't teaching. Making them understand how and why things can go wrong, and how to prevent it, is what needs to be taught. The root user is powerful. Users need to be taught this. Using unprivileged users to do installations so that they don't have to worry about root screwing up isn't learning. At least in my opinion. -- Randy rmlscsi: [GNU ld version 2.15.94.0.2 20041220] [gcc (GCC) 3.4.3] [GNU C Library stable release version 2.3.4] [Linux 2.6.10 i686] 21:24:01 up 61 days, 6:48, 3 users, load average: 0.26, 0.76, 0.73 -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/lfs-dev FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq/ Unsubscribe: See the above information page
