[tesla-dev] powertop and root user

[Rafael Vanoni]

Alexander Kolbasov wrote:
>> Eric Saxe wrote:
>>
>>> Rafael Vanoni wrote:
>>>> Just thinking out loud here, as I don't know the code yet, but
>>>> decoupling the active part from the observational would solve it. If
>>>> the user wants to change power state conf in any way, ask for root
>>>> passwd. 
>>>>
>>> This makes sense to me. The tool could detect when it has failed to
>>> make any changes (because of insufficient privledges, for example),
>>> and emit a helpful message.
>>>
>>> -Eric
>> PowerTOP can run under two modes, dump mode and curse based
>> UI mode. dump mode doesn't give user a chance to change conf file.
>>
>> So, how about use dtrace privilege in dump mode for just observation
>> and use root priviledge in UI mode so that the friendly user interface
>> is not
>> broken?
> 
> I'd prefer the tool to give me the data in any mode without root privileges. 
> If I'd like to follow the suggestions and fix anything it is quite another 
> story and I would expect to either enter root password or just learn the 
> command(s) I need to run as root to improve the situation. 

I agree, but asking for root passwd seems the right choice here.
No need to fork the tool.

Rafael