From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stefan Monnier" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Dangerous: delete-file deletes current directory as root!! Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 15:32:38 -0400 Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: <200210111932.g9BJWc116729@rum.cs.yale.edu> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1034364850 24503 127.0.0.1 (11 Oct 2002 19:34:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 19:34:10 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1805Y0-0006Mo-00 for ; Fri, 11 Oct 2002 21:34:08 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 1806NA-0002qc-00 for ; Fri, 11 Oct 2002 22:27:00 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 1805X8-000614-00; Fri, 11 Oct 2002 15:33:14 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.10) id 1805Wf-0005ZD-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 11 Oct 2002 15:32:45 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.10) id 1805Wd-0005Um-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 11 Oct 2002 15:32:45 -0400 Original-Received: from rum.cs.yale.edu ([128.36.229.169]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 1805Wd-0005KX-00; Fri, 11 Oct 2002 15:32:43 -0400 Original-Received: (from monnier@localhost) by rum.cs.yale.edu (8.11.6/8.11.6) id g9BJWc116729; Fri, 11 Oct 2002 15:32:38 -0400 X-Mailer: exmh version 2.4 06/23/2000 with nmh-1.0.4 Original-To: pot@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:8532 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:8532 > In GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (sparc-sun-solaris2.8, X toolkit) [...] > I am not knowledgeable about this platform, but here Emacs has a > serious and dangerous bug. When running as root (did not try as a > normal user) if one does: > > M-x delete-file RET > > Emacs deletes the current directory! Hmmm, the Single Unix Specification V2 says about unlink: The path argument must not name a directory unless the process has appropriate privileges and the implementation supports using unlink() on directories. Now, I'm not sure what `delete-file' should do. Should it mimic `unlink' or should it first check that it is not called on a directory ? Since the check would only be needed for `root' and since I don't think that people should be running Emacs under root unless they really mean it, I think the current code is fine. Maybe we should pop up a warning message when Emacs is started as root, reminding them that it can be dangerous ? Stefan