Subject: bug#21369: Coreutils RHEL 6.7 runuser

From: Bob Proulx <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2015 13:10:38 -0600

tag 21369 + notabug moreinfo
thanks

Hello Billy,

Thank you for your bug report.  We always appreciate it when people
take the time to file reports about problems.  However your report
isn't as good as it could be.  Sorry.  I am not saying that it isn't
appreciated.  But it could be better.

[email-masked] wrote:
> /sbin/runuser issue on RHEL 6.7 when executing `whoami` as tomcat.

For one you don't really say what you are expecting.  You say there is
a problem with runuser running whoam as tomcat.  Instead please show
us exactly what command you were running verbatim.  Without having
that we are left to guess.  Or to dig it out.

I deduce from the logfile that you ran this command.

  # /sbin/runuser -s /bin/ksh - tomcat -c whoami

What was the output of that command?  Please always include the
command and the output of the command verbatim.  Otherwise we don't
know what it was or we have to dig for it.  That is why I tagged this
bug as "moreinfo" needed.

> Strace -f attached.

Wow.  That is a huge attachment making the email around 839K on the
initial contact.  Please anytime you send something that large
compress the log file first.  Using gzip on the log reduces it to 51K
which is much lighter on the mailing lists and everyone's mailboxes.
Mailing lists at lists.gnu.org often have thousands of subscribers and
the bandwidth consumed is multipled by every one.

Also before sending something that large it is useful to make contact
and make sure it is going to be useful.  Here I am not sure it is
useful.  Because you are stracing 'runuser' which is running 'ksh'
with the '-' option to source the profile and $ENV and then it is
runniing 'whoam'.  That is quite the long way around the universe to
get to the end.

For another you are reporting a problem about "Coreutils RHEL 6.7
runuser" but runuser is not a coreutils program.  AFAIK runuser comes
from the util-linux package.  That isn't something we over here in the
coreutils project have anything to do with.  Plus 'ksh'.  Plus the
entirety of the (unknown contents of) profile.  And then finally the
'whoami' command, which is a coreutils program.  Even if we fully
understand what you are reporting it is unlikely we can do anything
about it.  That is why I have initially tagged this report as
"notabug" concerning coreutils.

> The information in this Internet Email is confidential and may be
> legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access
>...

And finally there is the useless email disclaimer.  We all know and
understand that it is attached by your company and there isn't
anything you can do about it.  But those are also useless, annoying,
and legally unenforceable.  The usual recommendation is that there are
many free(dom) respecting email providers available that don't abuse
the user's email this way.  It is good to use one of them instead.

So where are we?  What can we do make this report better?  First
please tell us what output comes out of the command.  I scanned
through the strace log in some detail but I couldn't dig out of it
what output was actually produced.  Or not if none.  It is a huge log
file and I couldn't spend a huge amout of time on it.

Then I expect that the problem is related to the use of the runuser
'-' option which sources the (unknown contents of) profile and $ENV.
I have often seen problems due to the code contents of those files.

When you reply please keep the [email-masked] bug address in
the recipient list.  That is the bug log for this report.

Thanks,
Bob

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