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authorKevin Dalley <kevind@rahul.net>2002-03-15 14:20:02 +0000
committerMattia Rizzolo <mattia@mapreri.org>2014-10-03 14:05:02 +0000
commitac8459519a9ef2a1ee635509b52a653da1bfe9d5 (patch)
tree9ed2df2144d6ad3bb7cf1d43243d815a8eb90059 /xsane.ROOT
parent8b372c9248930ae29763202121434d3d676d0f30 (diff)
parente7e90b72fd3161c5d55fed49e100781dfa3e9408 (diff)
Imported Debian patch 0.84-2debian/0.84-2
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+If you run xsane as root xsane comes up with a warning message at startup.
+Some people asked me to remove this warning, e.g:
+
+Q: "... But there is something I very disagree with: This horrible message when
+ I launch XSane, saying me that I mustn't run XSane as root.
+ If I run as root it's MY problem! Running as root has inconvenience, but
+ has also lots of advantages. Like I am the only user of my conputer I
+ run as root"
+
+A: 1) It does not matter if you are the only user on your system. There still
+ is a big security problem also in this case. When you run XSane as root
+ then XSane has pemission to remove or change any file on your system.
+ XSane is a really complex program and for sure there are still bugs
+ that may cause an unexpected behaviour like removing or writing into
+ files. Imagine what happens when XSane removes your home directory or
+ any important system files. Another issue is that you can accidently
+ remove or change all files on the system using XSane.
+
+ 2) early versions of XSane did not print this message and a lot of people
+ did run XSane as root. This caused a lot of problems and I got a lot of
+ problem reports and please-help-me mails. This took a lot of my time.
+ So it also is my problem when several people run XSane as root.
+
+
+ Please think about your decision to do all you work as root. This really
+ is dangerous. I do not know any professional system adminstrator who works
+ all the time as root. All system administrators work as a normal user
+ and if there is something that has to be done as root, then the admin
+ gets root permission only for this command.
+
+ Please beleve me that these people do know a lot of their machines and that
+ is the reason why they know it is dangerous to work all the time as root.
+
+ Doing a "rm -f *" in the wrong directory can kill your complete system when
+ you run as root. As normal user nothing will happen with a bit luck.
+
+ The decision if you work as root all the time has nothing to do if you are
+ the only user on the system.
+
+
+Q: "But I am using a parallel port scanner and need to be root to access the scanner"
+
+A: It is not necessary that the frontend (xsane) runs as root. The backend (driver) that
+ does access your scanner may need root access. If possible you sould compile your
+ backend with a parallel port library that allows acces as non privileged user.
+ If your backend does not support such a library then you can set up network scanning
+ on your system. Configure saned to run as root. To connect to the scanner connect
+ via the network protocol to localhost, e.g.: xsane net:localhost:epson
+