[Thunar-dev] Feature request: superuser mode

[tomás pollak]

> >
> > I thought running X (or worse, gtk) applications as root was a security
> > hazard.
>
> I am not talking about running X as root. And IMHO running a single gtk
> application as root is definitely the better solution than running your
> whole X session as root.
>
> I am a big fan of the shell, but I don't believe it should be a
> neccessity to use it if you want to delete/modify/rename/whatever some
> system files. After all, the purpose of a file manager is to manage
> _all_ files on your computer, and not just the ones in your home directory.
>
> So what this superuser mode (which is now already implemented, thanks
> Benedikt!) is all about, is the ability to spawn a new instance of
> thunar for these rare cases where you need superuser access (using gksu
> or something similar), and then, because just as you said it is
> dangerous to work as root, to remind you of the fact that you are
> running thunar as superuser.
>

I don't think it would be neccesary to span a whole new instance of
Thunar just to edit some textfile. There could be an option when you
right click over a file, to "Edit as Root", so that in stead of just
opening mousepad, Thunar executed "gksudo mousepad %filename". In
fact, anyone can do so now adding a new "Open With" option for some
kind of file. But "Edit as Root" sounds better anyway.

Regards,
Tomàs

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