[RFC] remove <allow_anonymous/> from dbus config?

[Yang Chengwei]

Hi List,

When I came to document several undocumented dbus config items for
dbus-daemon(1), that are <syslog>, <pidfile>, <allow_anonymous>, I found
that allow_anonymous somehow duplicated with <auth>ANONYMOUS</auth>.

If <auth>ANONYMOUS</auth> configured or no <auth> configured, then
ANONYMOUS auth mechanism is used, that means the user want to enable
ANONYMOUS connections. However, in fact, to enable ANONYMOUS
connections, one should config both <auth>ANONYMOUS</auth> and
<allow_anonymous/>. Some kind of duplicated.

Given that if ANONYMOUS mechanism disabled, say no
<auth>ANONYMOUS</auth> configured but one or more other <auth> mechanism
configured, <allow_anonymous/> doesn't make any sense, because it needs
ANONYMOUS auth mechanism enabled first.

So from my POV, <allow_anonymous/> is duplicated with
<auth>ANONYMOUS</auth>, from the user POV, if the user enabled ANONYMOUS
mechanism, it means he/she does want ANONYMOUS connections. Another
<allow_anonymous/> just make things confused.

So far, <allow_anonymous/> hasn't been documented anywhere, from
dbus-daemon(1) to http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/busconfig.dtd,
regardless there are several items missing in the DTD.

Should we remove <allow_anonymous/> and just let user configure
ANONYMOUS auth mechanism if ANONYMOUS connections wanted?

--
Thanks,
Chengwei
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 490 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dbus/attachments/20130909/a23364c1/attachment.pgp>