games user and group

Michael Thomas wart at kobold.org
Wed Mar 1 00:31:06 UTC 2006


I've got a few questions regarding the use of the 'games' user and group
for game packages.  The resulting recommended practices will be posted
to the Extras/SIGs/Games wiki page.

Daemon processes
================
Some games such as wesnoth and xpilot-ng come with server daemons.  I
see three choices for the owner of these daemon processes:

1) root (ick!)
2) Allocate a separate '<gamename>' user for each package/daemon
3) Piggyback on the 'games' user

My preference would be #3.  Are there any drawbacks to reusing the
'games' user to run various game daemons?

Scoreboard files
================
Two packages that I recently submitted for review ('rogue' and 'ularn')
use the 'games' group and a setgid executable so that all users have
access to the shared scoreboard file.  Are there any security issues
that we need to be aware of when using setgid games?

File ownership
==============
Almost every package that I see in FE uses %defattr(-,root,root,-).  Is
there any reason why we shouldn't be using %defattr(-,games,games,-) for
game packages (including documentation, manpages and such)?

--Mike
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