Re: ipmi-console doesn't need root and should be in /usr/bin

[Al Chu]

Hi Fabio,

> thanks for reply, I don't know if one or more freeipmi tools "really"
> need root and I don't have time to check/test all them shortly

Let me ask this question.  Do you intend to resolve the debian issue
below by moving it to /usr/bin in the debian distribution?

> it is better to ask someone else's opinion, especially someone more
> experienced than me

I will ask some power users at my company and ask their opinion.

Al

On Sun, 2021-02-07 at 18:43 +0100, Fabio Fantoni wrote:
> Il 06/02/2021 18:56, Al Chu ha scritto:
> > Hi Fabio,
> > 
> > Actually thinking about this more, could this argument be made for
> > all
> > FreeIPMI tools that do out of band communication?  On my local
> > redhat
> > system, I notice they put ipmitool in /usr/bin.
> > 
> > Just wanting to know your opinion on this.
> 
> thanks for reply, I don't know if one or more freeipmi tools "really"
> need root and I don't have time to check/test all them shortly
> 
> if none of them will need root  I think can be ok mv all to /usr/bin,
> about symlinks for rename I think is a "must", for this "move only"
> instead is needed to avoid issue only for cases where are used with
> full
> path "hardcoded" so the risk of problems is less but maybe the links
> would be better to have them.
> 
> it is better to ask someone else's opinion, especially someone more
> experienced than me
> 
> > 
> > Al
> > 
> > On Sat, 2021-02-06 at 09:50 -0800, Al Chu wrote:
> > > Hi Fabio,
> > > 
> > > I think that's a good point.  And the same argument can maybe be
> > > made
> > > for `ipmipower` since it has no "in-band" component.  Both are in
> > > /usr/sbin mostly b/c everything else there is.
> > > 
> > > My one concern is that it's been in /usr/sbin for so long, I'm
> > > not
> > > sure
> > > how many people may have hard coded "/usr/sbin/" into
> > > scripts.  This
> > > is
> > > far likely with "ipmipower", but perhaps with "ipmiconsole" too.
> > > 
> > > Perhaps a backwards compatibility symlink would be needed?
> > > 
> > > What would you imagine debian doing in this case?
> > > 
> > > Al
> > > 
> > > On Sat, 2021-02-06 at 18:03 +0100, Fabio Fantoni wrote:
> > > > Hi, as reported in debian: 
> > > > https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=977949
> > > > > The ipmi-console command can be executed by any normal user
> > > > > and
> > > > > doesn't
> > > > > require "system administrator" (aka "root") permission.,
> > > > > IMHO, it
> > > > > should
> > > > > hence be installed to /usr/bin, and not to /usr/sbin., The
> > > > > fact
> > > > > that you
> > > > > are accessing an IPMO SoL console of another machine, (of
> > > > > which
> > > > > you
> > > > > may
> > > > > be the system administrator) doesn't mean you have to be the
> > > > > system
> > > > > administrator of the client running ipmi-console.
> > > > 
> > > > is there a reason why it should be kept in sbin instead bin?
> > > > thanks for any reply and sorry for my bad english
> > > > 
> 
>