[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #53515] Running Octave GUI as "sudo" creates a settings file owned by root

[Dan Sebald]

Follow-up Comment #3, bug #53515 (project octave):

Because Octave is run as root doesn't necessarily mean it has to save a file
with root ownership.  As an example, here vi doesn't change the ownership of
the file:


address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ cat test.txt
cat: test.txt: No such file or directory
address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ vi test.txt
address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ cat test.txt
This is
address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ ls -l test.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 sebald sebald 8 Mar 29 13:53 test.txt
address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ sudo vi test.txt
address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ cat test.txt
This is some text.
address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ ls -l test.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 sebald sebald 19 Mar 29 13:54 test.txt
address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ 


Yes, if no such file exists, it is different:


address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ sudo vi test2.txt
address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ cat test2.txt
This is a new file.
address@hidden ~/octave/bug/53006 $ ls -l test2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20 Mar 29 13:57 test2.txt


I suppose that creating a new qt-settings file with an ownership other than
root would be a security risk, but if the file already exists with a certain
ownership, why change it?

Nonetheless, I don't think having a non-writable qt-settings should make
Octave inoperable.  Just when and how qt-settings should be written (i.e.,
write everytime someone repositions the window layouts so that if Octave
crashes, the most recent layout is retained?) could be done better.

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