Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!uflorida!math.ufl.edu!shadrach.math.ufl.edu!bb From: bb@math.ufl.edu (Brian Bartholomew) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Another ... Suggestion for NeXT, Inc. Message-ID: Date: 1 May 91 04:50:49 GMT References: <1991Apr28.083232.12277@cbnewse.att.com> <591@rosie.NeXT.COM><1991Apr29.082508.2376@wuphys.wustl.edu> Sender: news@math.ufl.edu Organization: University of Florida Department of Mathematics Lines: 25 In-Reply-To: scott@mcs-server.gac.edu's message of 29 Apr 91 17:27:33 GMT In article <1991Apr29.082508.2376@wuphys.wustl.edu> rdd@wuphys.wustl.edu (Rakhal D. Dave) writes: > What I'd like is to see an option in the user workspace menu, under > tools maybe, called superuser. Choosing this option should cause the > loginwindow to be displayed with root filled into the user field. On > giving the password, without rearranging the workspace to match the > root workspace and without halting any background processes it would > be great to get all the root permissions to rearrange files. This is certainly do-able, but it strikes me as extremely messy and very dangerous. Mostly I think you would contradict many designed-in features of the "U*IX programming environment". What would you have a program do that has already chosen what to do based on your userid? Would you require code to be added to every U*IX program on the box to check occassionally to see if its uid has been changed to root? The idea of a big Frankenstein-style "Maintenance" switch is appealing, but I cannot visualize how to do it cleanly. -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian Bartholomew UUCP: ...gatech!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!bb University of Florida Internet: bb@math.ufl.edu