Re: Running PCP as non-root

["Nathan Scott" <nathans@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi,

On Oct 20, 10:01am, lemming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Subject: Running PCP as non-root
>    Hello!
> 
>    I would like to ask why the PCP script checks whether it it is ran by 
> root. I
> need to run PMCD as non-root user (possibly in chrooted environment) for 
> security
> reasons. I have commented out this check and PMCD seemed to work OK. So is 
> there
> any reason why it must be ran as root?
> 

I think the reasons are mainly historical - on IRIX, the
libirixpmda PMDA needs to be root to be able to make some
of its system calls (and a couple of /dev/kmem reads), so
pmcd needs to be root.

pmcd also needs to write stuff into its log file, which is
in a  directory where only root can write (by default).

I _think_ those are the only reasons... thats all I can
remember off the top of my head, anyway.

cheers.

-- 
Nathan