[Portland] RE: alternative to X-KDE-SubstituteUID for non KDE desktops

[Fathi Boudra]

Hi,

some more informations about similar behavior to xdg-su on debian.
it could be nice to have a common way to deal with elevated user privileges
problem. Actually, kvpnc and qtparted are use cases that require this 
functionnality.

* from Olivier Trichet :
> On Debian system, you may use the "su-to-root" program from the menu 
> package. For instance, the qtparted package use this method.

* from man su-to-root :
NAME
       su-to-root - A simple script to give an `interactive' front-end to su.  
It can be used in menu entry commands to ask for the root password

SYNOPSIS
       su-to-root [-X] [-p <user>] -c <command>

DESCRIPTION
       Most menu entries simply start an editor or a game or whatever. But 
some menu entries would like to give the user the ability to change important 
settings in the system, that require root privileges.  su-to-root can be used 
to ask for the root password.

OPTIONS
       -c <command>
              The command to execute as a string. This option is mandatory.

       -p <user>
              The name of the user to su to, instead of root.

       -X     The command is a X11 program that do not require a terminal.  
This is to be used with menu entries that declare needs="X11".

ENVIRONMENT
       SU_TO_ROOT_X
              Select the su-like program called by su-to-root -X.  Supported 
values are gksu, kdesu and sux.

       SU_TO_ROOT_SU
              If set to sux force su-to-root to use sux in text mode.

* about sux:
wrapper around su which will transfer your X credentials
Sux is a wrapper around the standard su command which will transfer
your X credentials to the target user.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sux/

* qtparted.desktop: Exec=su-to-root -X -c /usr/sbin/qtparted

cheers,

Fathi