[Gambas-user] Access global variable from other .class

[Bruce]

On Sat, 2012-06-16 at 01:17 +0300, Jussi Lahtinen wrote:
> OK, got it.
> It's now "fixed" (actually xfce function was missing), tested and attached.
> 
> Benoit, is this official part of xdg-utils..? Because I have that package
> installed, but not that script.
> 
> Jussi
> 
Jussi,

No, xdg-su is no longer part of xdg-utils.  There is a whole lot of
***xdg-su and xdg-su*** scripts in the wild, some are xdg compliant,
some are not so.

AFAIK the last portland release was 1.1.0 about a year or more ago.
Even that had some signs of "wear-and-tear" in that the release notes
and readme files seem fairly out of date.

I had some problems last year using gb.desktop on an LXDE system that
resulted in me looking very deeply into the xdg situation.  At that time
pcman (the LXDE originator) had spent considerable effort getting LXDE
recognised by the scripts.  What I could not understand then was how
things "just worked" when I ran the xdg-utils from a terminal and just
didn't when invoked through gb.desktop.  I then found that gambas is
using an internal set of these utilities.  So these need to be
maintained!  (As you have just done with the xdg-su script.)

I have not used the xdg-su script for privilege escalation, but a quick
(and I mean quick!) look through it at it stands is not going to be a
great success.

Which gets me back to your 
> "Weird that there isn't any standard about this, or is there..?
> I think every linux distribution should have link to it's graphical 
> version of sudo/su, with uniform name like GUIsudo.
> Then you could always call it without knowing which environment is
> used."

The fact is, there isn't and one of the major reasons is the old ongoing
su/sudo argument and how certain distros implement their own policies
regarding this.  (I don't intend on pursuing that argument further here)

So, the following is a set of comments on the various utilities around
now:

GKSU/GKSUDO
Pro: Easy to use, can handle complex command strings*, easy to configure
the authorisation gui to suit
Con: There are some security issues, the major one to me is that it
escalates the current user's privilege, not the current process.  Even
more of an issue is that the escalation actually remains in force for a
period of time after the gksu command is finished.
Also, there is currently some talk in gnome circles (fairy rings?) that
gksu will be replaced.

KDESU/KDESUDO
Pro: Easy to use, can handle complex command strings.
Con: Some security issues, authorisation gui is not configurable.

PKEXE
Pro: Presumeably desktop agnostic but actually restricted to distros the
implement policykit.
Con: Can only handle single commands.  Creates a session running as root
with the working directory set to /root rather than escalating current
user or process privileges (some may see this as a Pro, I disagree.)
Also the authorisation gui is not configurable and it displays more
information than some may like (like the real path of the command that
is going to be executed.)
It also cannot run gui commands.

xdg-su
Pro: Integrated with Gambas through gb.desktop
Con: Supported desktops! Needs maintenance within gambas!
Unknown: What does it actually escalate?  A quick look at several of the
versions around indicate that many rely on su? 

* a complex command string being something like 
'cd /home/blah/blah;echo pwd; make install; echo "Success!"'

One final comment, GKSU, KDESU and PKEXE all run happily on my LXDE box
and perform "correctly" (i.e. within the constraints expressed above).
But on my CentOS test box, only pkexe works.  :-(

Bruce