Why doesn't Fedora include gksudo/gksu as a package

[Rahul Sundaram]

Todd Zullinger wrote:
> Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>> Todd Zullinger wrote:
> [...]
>>> I think you'd have to admit that using consolehelper to start up
>>> various programs -- somewhat random depending on the user's
>>> needs/wants -- is a pain in the ass.
>> It's not what consolehelper is designed to do. It is meant for
>> *applications*. Not directly by end users.
> 
> Agreed.  And that makes it the wrong solution for the task Bill was
> asking about.

If you are fiddling with zenity, you might be building a mini 
application. If it was just a direct attempt to launch a application, 
consolehelper isnt the answer.

>> There is a view point that su helpers are a wrong model.
>> http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/portland/2006-April/000384.html
> 
> I don't disagree that a better method than su helpers would be ideal
> for desktop and gui users.  The problem is that those methods don't
> exist yet and there are more than a few users who would like to do
> things that require root privileges using some sort of gui.

In that thread itself, there are descriptions about PolicyKit which is 
about to be integrated.

> Since Fedora has disabled fast user switching in gnome (which I
> completely understand, as it makes for some interesting permissions
> issues), this leaves those users with the alternative of starting a
> terminal and running sudo appname or logging out as a user and logging
> in as root.  Neither of which are as nice as it'd be to be able to
> create a launcher that did this.

See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Desktop/FastUserSwitching

> 
> I'd say that in the interim until su helpers aren't needed something
> like gksu would be an improvement to many users.

That kind of thinking taken a bit to next level results in sloppy 
security. Who is thinking that running the usual GNOME and KDE 
applications under root privelages is a good idea. There is massive 
amount of code which is unaudited.

> Oh man, now I have to get my flame retardant suit on in case that
> starts a KDE versus Gnome knock-down-drag-out battle. ;-)
> 
> But it does point out that such a su helper is shipped with KDE so
> including one for Gnome wouldn't be so wrong.

We could fix that but folks would bring out conspiracy theories about 
mutating it. .

Rahul