RE: non-root tests in target check-root?

[Voelker, Bernhard]

Jim Meyering wrote:
> Voelker, Bernhard wrote:
> > Jim Meyering wrote:
> >> Voelker, Bernhard wrote:
> >> > I'm wondering why there are so many tests (in coreutils-8.0( run by
> >> >
> >> >     sudo env PATH="$PATH" NON_ROOT_USERNAME=$USER make -k check-root
> >> >
> >> > which are skipped with "must be run as non-root",
> >> > e.g. touch/read-only, mv/perm-1, etc.
> >> > Is that on purpose (to check wether the root check works;-) ?
> >>
> >> It's because running them as root would fail,
> >> due to the different way in which permissions work when
> >> you are root; e.g., root can touch and write to a read-only file:
> >>
> >>     # :>f; chmod 0 f; touch f; echo > f
> >>     #
> >
> > thanks for the answer & sorry for the delay.
> >
> > That was clear to me, maybe my question was inprecise:
> > If I understand the check* targets right, there is the general
> > purpose target "check" which can be run as a non-root or a root user
> > while there is a special target for root-only checks named "check-root".
> 
> Not quite.  I recommend against running "make check" as root.
> There are very many tests, and while we're pretty confident
> they contain few bugs and probably no *exploitable* bugs, it
> is best to be cautious and run as few programs as possible when root.

ok.

> Hence, "make check-root" serves to run the few tests
> that can succeed only when run by root.

... so "touch/read-only" and "mv/perm-1" should be removed from
"make check-root" since it cannot be run as root, right?

Bye,
Berny