[Pkg-systemd-maintainers] Bug#694332: Re: Bug#694332: systemctl man page deficiency re user needing to be in adm group

[Ralf Jung]

Hi,

>> Also note, that systemd-journalctl also warns you on stdout if you are
>> running as non-root user and you're not in group adm.
> 
> Ahh, perhaps systemctl is calling journalctl with -q option?
> 
> That would be the "bug" then.
> 
> The problem is, systemctl is now masquerading as a front end to
> journalctl. Since it's doing that, to assist newbies it ought to by
> default give the same journalctl warning, and have the -q override
> this (*).
> 
> I agree it's a minor bug, but it's a discoverability issue nonetheless.
> 
> (*) I'm pretty sure this is the case, but currently can't boot with
> systemd again, so I've yet more to learn :)

This is exactly the case: When I run journalctl, I get

> Unprivileged users cannot access messages, unless persistent log storage is
> enabled. Users in the 'systemd-journal' group may always access messages.

But when I run "systemctl status ...", no such message appears, and I
may miss one of the best features of systemd: The log messages in the
status description.

Kind regards
Ralf