[libvirt] [PATCH] Allow root users to have their own configuration file

[Martin Kletzander]

On Thu 12 Sep 2013 12:12:22 PM CEST, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 12:07:54PM +0200, Martin Kletzander wrote:
>> On 09/12/2013 12:00 PM, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
>>> On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 11:53:32AM +0200, Martin Kletzander wrote:
>>>> Currently, we have two configuration file paths, one global (where
>>>> "global" means root-only and we're probably not changing this in near
>>>> future) and one per-user.  Unfortunately root user cannot use the
>>>> second option because until now we were choosing the file path
>>>> depending only on whether the user is root or not.
>>>>
>>>> This patch modifies the mentioned behavior for root only, allowing him
>>>> to set his own configuration files without changing anything in
>>>> system-wide configuration folders.
>>>>
>>>> This also makes the virsh-uriprecedence test pass its first test case
>>>> when ran as root.
>>>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Martin Kletzander <mkletzan at redhat.com>
>>>> ---
>>>>
>>>> Notes:
>>>>     I'm playing along previously mentioned "proper behavior" in this
>>>>     patch.  However, IMNSHO, our "global" or "system-wide" configuration
>>>>     file (defaulting to '/etc/libvirt/libvirt.conf') should be accessible
>>>>     for all users since this has no security impact (security information
>>>>     may be in files 'libvirtd.conf' or 'qemu.conf').  This file should be
>>>>     also read and used for all users.  After that, settings in user
>>>>     configuration file (defaulting to '~/.config/libvirt/libvirt.conf')
>>>>     may override some of these settings for that user.
>>>>     
>>>>     This is how all sensible configurations are loaded and that's also
>>>>     what I'd prefer.  Unfortunately some developers feels this should be
>>>>     done in completely different way.
>>>>
>>>>  src/libvirt.c | 56 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------
>>>>  1 file changed, 36 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)
>>>
>>> NACK to this. The root user already has their own dedicated configuration
>>> file, /etc/libvirt/libvirt.conf.  The /etc/libvirt directory permissions
>>> prevent *any* file there being read by non-root, so the /etc/libvirt/libvirt.conf
>>> file could not be used by non-root.
>>>
>>
>> As mentioned in the commit message, this patch doesn't change the
>> behavior for non-root users, that's only a nag in the notes.
>>
>> The only thing that changes after applying this patch is that *iff* ran
>> as root, we'll *also* check "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/libvirt/libvirt.conf".
>
> I don't see any point in doing that at all. Root already has a config
> file exclusively for their own use. They don't need 2.
>

I wasn't discussing that, but it might be possible to differentiate that
configs and made it possible to for them to share /etc configs between
hosts and make his own

Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing nor I need this to go in, it just
(still) makes way more sense to me.  Take a look at git for example (or
virtually anything) and his /etc/gitconfig => ~/.gitconfig;
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config => $repository/.git/config and so on...

I've sent a v2 [1] fixing the test.

Martin

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2013-September/msg00701.html