ConsoleKit shutdown service, a different viewpoint

[Rob Taylor]

Patryk Zawadzki wrote:
> On Feb 1, 2008 2:05 PM, Rob Taylor <rob.taylor at codethink.co.uk> wrote:
>> I have a slightly different viewpoint on why it might not be a good idea
>> to have a shutdown service in ConsoleKit: what if you want more input to
>> the shutdown decision than just what consoles are currently active?
>>
>> A good usecase to consider here is if an administrator is installing
>> packages or doing a distribution upgrade - how would this get fed into
>> the decision?
>>
>> Also:
>> Can you have policy so a user with sufficient privileges can shut down a
>> box though another user's logged in?
>>
>> Can you have response to a shutdown request - we have an example usecase
>> on the OHM wiki [1] where one console user has left a large download
>> going - could a user requesting a shutdown get informed of the situation?
>>
>> Another example is an edge case of a simultaneous shut-down and suspend
>> to disk, one should always take precedence, but if a suspend is in
>> progress, the shutdown should probably not happen.
>>
>> Ideas on how these could work would be very interesting for me!
> 
> While usecases are good, the solution is not. It's like putting the
> whole policy management inside HAL just to check if a user is able to
> mount a removable drive. HAL is a consumer of other services so it can
> ask ConsoleKit as well as it asks PolicyKit (and since PolicyKit
> already depends on ConsoleKit, it would most likely be a blessed
> dependency).
> 

Note, I said 'might not be a good idea' at the top...

I certainly don't have a particular solution in mind. I don't really
think HAL is the right place either.

Thanks,
Rob

-- 
Rob Taylor, Codethink Ltd. -  http://codethink.co.uk