Re: initramfs programs (was [RFC] klibc requirements)

[Matthew Kirkwood]

On Wed, 9 Jan 2002, Eric S. Raymond wrote:

> > > The underlying problem is that dmidecode needs access to kmem, and I
> > > can't assume that the person running my configurator will be root.
> >
> > But you can "su -c" (also sudo, I suppose).  If that person
> > doesn't have root, then building a kernel isn't going to do
> > them much good.
>
> We've been over this already.  No, the configurator user should *not*
> have to su at any point before actual kernel installation.  Bad
> practice, no doughnut.

Why bad practice?  Anyway, you can:

	if [ /proc/ -nt /var/run/dmidecode ]; then
		echo We need to run some code as root.
		echo -n Enter root\'s\
		su -c 'dmidecode > /var/run/dmidecode'
	fi

Which provides at least a way to have your config tool
work without having to bloat the initramfs.

Matthew.