Date: 17 Jul 2003 11:10:49 -0400 From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.no-ip.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: "Gerald S. Stoller" <gs_stoller@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: xterm Message-ID: <44d6g989za.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> In-Reply-To: <Sea1-F77KUsqPQx0gdE0000bf0a@hotmail.com> References: <Sea1-F77KUsqPQx0gdE0000bf0a@hotmail.com>
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"Gerald S. Stoller" <gs_stoller@hotmail.com> writes: > FreeBSD 4.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.3-RELEASE #0: Sat Apr 21 10:54:49 GMT 2001 > jkh@narf.osd.bsdi.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/GENERIC i386 >=20 > When working in a Unix system, I like to work with several > windows (if possible) and organize my work among them. I use xterm > (as on the line 'xterm &') to open new windows. Recently, I wanted > to check on my processes and issued the command 'ps -l' and was > surprised to not find any xterm processes among them. So I issued > the command 'ps -la' and there I found the xterm processes but they > were owned by root , not by me who had issued the command. Even > though I wasn=92t listed *by the =91ps =96la=92 command as the > owner, I could still kill the xterm processes. I don=92t know > where the incongruity is, in the kernel=92s tables or in the > reporting by ps . > > In multi-user (commercial) systems, I believe that the user > who invokes the xterm processes is (listed as) its owner. > I prefer that all processes running in FreeBSD be owned by > the user who invoked them, the exceptions being some system ( root ) > processes used in the login process. (The xterm processes are > included here as non-system processes, so they should be owned by the > user who invoked them.) I would like to see FreeBSD changed to > reflect this, but the bug reporting site is down now. If anyone knows > of any reasons why the current operation is correct and should be left > as is, please inform me. xterm is suid-root, because it needs to open a terminal. The *shell* running in the xterm should be owned by the user, but the user doesn't have sufficient permissions for opening the terminal. I believe you're wrong about X behaving otherwise on other Unix systems.=20=20
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