[Debian-med-packaging] Bug#739657: gnuhealth-server: fails to install: gnuhealth-server.postinst: sudo: not found

[Andreas Tille]

On Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 08:36:58PM +0100, Emilien Klein wrote:
> I assumed/believed sudo was part of the "base" Debian system, as I don't
> have issues when building the package with pbuilder.
> I indeed want to execute those commands as the user that owns the database.
> 
> I understood sudo (su DO) was meant to execute commands as another user,
> while su is used to "become" another user. Granted, with `su -c` you can
> execute a command as another user.
> 
> Extract from the manpages:
> sudo:
> sudo, sudoedit - execute a command as another user

I'd call this a bit confusing since sudo is the command to do something
as superuser.

> su:
> su - change user ID or become superuser
> OPTIONS
>  -c, --command COMMAND
>            Specify a command that will be invoked by the shell using its -c.

su belongs to (any POSIX) standard system and if you are keep on reading
its manpage it says:

       The su command is used to become another user during a login session. Invoked without a username, su
       defaults to becoming the superuser. The optional argument - may be used to provide an environment
       similar to what the user would expect had the user logged in directly.

so the `username` parameter is what you want to use to become the dbuser
in your script.  The sudo command is something to *become* root but when
you are executing the install scripts of a Debian package you just *are*
root.

> I am wondering what the most appropriate command is to perform this task.
> Is the solution to:
> - Depend on sudo
> - Use su to execute that command

The later as I said in my previous mail.
 
Kind regards

     Andreas.

-- 
http://fam-tille.de