On Jul 24, 2007, at 19:09 , William Stein wrote:
> > On 7/24/07, Justin C. Walker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I was not paying attention when the notebook design was being >> discussed, so I was surprised to see that starting it up requires an >> "enabled" root login. On Mac OS X, this is generally discouraged, >> and is not the default. > > The notebook can be run in both secure (https) and insecure mode. > When run in insecure mode, you > run as a user called "root", and things are pretty much like they were > before with the old version of the notebook. OK; I read the output from 'notebook?' and I have a little better understanding of the situation (and yes, I should have done that first; mea maxima culpa (mea sage culpa?)). > What is disconcerting? I.e., what alternative would you like? The Mac OS X user has been (or should have been :-}) indoctrinated in the idea that 'root' is a Unix-ism that is useful in the hands of experts, but that should not be trifled with. The system ships with the user "root" known, but with no "account" supporting a login by "root". After a brief look at the source, it's still not clear. Are these accounts distinct from the "/etc/passwd" accounts of Unix fame? In particular, is 'root' the Unix 'root'? > I would be very happy if some people including you would read the > output of notebook?, understand how the current model works, and > propose > some alternatives. Basically the user model that we worked out at SD4 > was only one of the many usage cases, i.e., the one for the public > notebook server. I will spend some time looking it over. Justin -- Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon at Large Institute for the Absorption of Federal Funds ----------- I'm beginning to like the cut of his jibberish. ----------- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-forum URLs: http://sage.math.washington.edu/sage/ and http://sage.scipy.org/sage/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
