Subject: Re: bug#12041: Issues running the testsuite as root

From: Stefano Lattarini <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:20:10 +0200

On 07/25/2012 02:33 PM, Dennis Clarke wrote:
> 
> 
>> The attached patch should solve the issue.  Could you give it a try?
> 
> Seems to fix that. 
>
Good, I will soon apply it then.

> However I am fairly certian that all files are not executable from the
> perspective of the root user. That seems absurd.
>
That might well depend by the shell you are using maybe (ore more precisely,
in this case, the one that is selected by the configure running in the test
scripts).

Could you try what happens issuing this command as root with all the shells
you have at your disposal (/bin/sh, /usr/xpg4/bin/sh, /bin/ksh and bash at
least)?

    test -x /etc/passwd; echo $?

Anyway, the Autoconf manual reads:

    For historical reasons, Posix reluctantly allows implementations of
    'test -x' that will succeed for the root user, even if no execute
    permissions are present.

So my patch might be a good idea regardless of your use case, just as a
way to err on the side of safety.

Thanks,
  Stefano