Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 17:18:34 +0000 (UTC) From: jb <jb.1234abcd@gmail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A very 'trivial' question about /root Message-ID: <loom.20130628T190502-990@post.gmane.org> References: <1372407002.6831.34.camel@blackfriar.inhio.eu> <201306281325.r5SDPitf054224@fire.js.berklix.net>
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Julian H. Stacey <jhs <at> berklix.com> writes: > > jb.1234abcd <at> gmail.com 's ref to > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=578470 > relates to Linux upgrade procedures & /root > I don't see it affects how we should perceive an idealised Unix. > The upgrade was a canary that told the user there is a problem. The idealized UNIX is standardized. According to Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), a UNIX standard: " /root : Home directory for the root user (optional) Purpose The root account's home directory may be determined by developer or local preference, but this is the recommended default location. [17] [17] If the home directory of the root account is not stored on the root partition it will be necessary to make certain it will default to / if it can not be located. " The above means that there has to be implied equivalency and consistency of permisssions between /root and / in order to ensure trouble-free operation of any process that may rely on any of them. That Linux case I referred to was a case about a system that relied on the above 0755 setup for /root dir, with an interesting twist of having it as a dummy account/dir for consistency, but having other accounts play the role of a superuser. Another example: some app (perhaps an installer) runs as non-root (e.g. Apache) user and needs to be able to read the root ssh public key from /root dir. There could be many such apps, accessing a front-end system, having to check for permission in /root dir for whatever they want to do, anywhere in sys admin, remote control, management, installation, etc areas. By changing this default you may ambush many unsuspecting users. jb
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