Voelker, Bernhard wrote: > Jim Meyering wrote: >> Voelker, Bernhard wrote: >> > Jim Meyering wrote: >> >> Voelker, Bernhard wrote: >> >> > I'm wondering why there are so many tests (in coreutils-8.0( run by >> >> > >> >> > sudo env PATH="$PATH" NON_ROOT_USERNAME=$USER make -k check-root >> >> > >> >> > which are skipped with "must be run as non-root", >> >> > e.g. touch/read-only, mv/perm-1, etc. >> >> > Is that on purpose (to check wether the root check works;-) ? >> >> >> >> It's because running them as root would fail, >> >> due to the different way in which permissions work when >> >> you are root; e.g., root can touch and write to a read-only file: >> >> >> >> # :>f; chmod 0 f; touch f; echo > f >> >> # >> > >> > thanks for the answer & sorry for the delay. >> > >> > That was clear to me, maybe my question was inprecise: >> > If I understand the check* targets right, there is the general >> > purpose target "check" which can be run as a non-root or a root user >> > while there is a special target for root-only checks named "check-root". >> >> Not quite. I recommend against running "make check" as root. >> There are very many tests, and while we're pretty confident >> they contain few bugs and probably no *exploitable* bugs, it >> is best to be cautious and run as few programs as possible when root. > > ok. > >> Hence, "make check-root" serves to run the few tests >> that can succeed only when run by root. > > ... so "touch/read-only" and "mv/perm-1" should be removed from > "make check-root" since it cannot be run as root, right?
The list of root_tests is in tests/Makefile.am: root_tests = \ chown/basic \ cp/cp-a-selinux \ cp/preserve-gid \ cp/special-bits \ cp/cp-mv-enotsup-xattr \ dd/skip-seek-past-dev \ install/install-C-root \ ls/capability \ ls/nameless-uid \ misc/chcon \ misc/chroot-credentials \ misc/selinux \ misc/truncate-owned-by-other \ mkdir/writable-under-readonly \ mv/sticky-to-xpart \ rm/fail-2eperm \ rm/no-give-up \ rm/one-file-system \ tail-2/append-only \ touch/now-owned-by-other and it does not contain either of those two tests. Does "make check-root" run them for you? If you are having a problem, please list the commands you are running and whatever problematic output they produce.
