NFS root manipulation without being superuser?

[Chris Hallinan]

Maybe this is just too simple, but I always have my target file
system under my home directory or under /opt with user:group ==
me:swdev, or something like that, and who cares what the target
thinks the user:group is, because I always login as root on my
target.  So, that way, I can do what you seek: 1) have the Power of
God on my own development workstation's 'target file system' to make
changes as I see fit, 2) not risk wiping out something on my
workstation (which I've done, yes :) and 3) modify the target fs
from my target, as well!

I *NEVER, NEVER, NEVER work routinely as root!  <grin>

Does that make sense?

-Chris Hallinan
DS4.COM, Inc.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-linuxppc-embedded at lists.linuxppc.org
> [mailto:owner-linuxppc-embedded at lists.linuxppc.org]On
> Behalf Of Jeff
> Kowing
> Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 2:59 PM
> To: Brian Waite
> Cc: linuxppc-embedded at lists.linuxppc.org
> Subject: Re: NFS root manipulation without being superuser?
>
>
>
> Brian Waite writes:
>  > you could export the fs from the dev host as
> no_root_squash an insecure
>  > for example
>  > /home   *(rw,insecure,no_root_squash)
>  >
>  > That will allow the embedded host to modify files on
> the NFS filesystem as
>  > root. Does tha accomplish what you need?
>
> Thanks Brain for the reply.  No, that is not really what
> I mean.  I
> want to be able to manipulate/create/alter the target's root
> filesystem (exported from the development workstation) from the
> _development_ workstation.  I want to be able to do so
> without having
> to change to superuser privleges on the development workstation.
>
> For example, say I export an NFS root filesystem to my
> target.  This
> filesystem on my development machine is located within my home
> directory.  For example:
>
> /home/me/target
> /home/me/target/bin
> /home/me/target/root
> /home/me/target/lib
> /home/me/target/dev
> ... you get the idea.
>
> Now, from my development workstation, as user "me", I
> would like to be
> able to install a program to the target's NFS root filesystem.  I
> would like that program to appear as having root ownership to the
> target.  For example, user "me" installs the program "foo" to:
>
> /home/me/target/bin/foo
>
> On the development machine this would look like:
> developmentt$ ls -l /home/me/target/bin/foo
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 me  me          48 Nov 15 10:59 foo
>
> On the target machine this would look like:
> target$ ls -l /bin/foo
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root  root      48 Nov 15 10:59 foo
>
> I guess maybe I thought there might be a way to do some
> sort of NFS
> user/group mapping so that you could "trick" the target
> into thinking
> files were owned by root whereas on the development
> machine they are
> in reality owned by user "me".  Or some sort of tricks
> that could be
> played using fakeroot and those kinds of programs.
>
> I guess what I really want is a way, from my development
> workstation,
> to have the "power" of root to manipulate the target's filesystem
> (i.e., the files under /home/me/target directory) WITHOUT
> having the
> "power" to screw up the development workstation's system
> files.  Does
> this make sense to anyone or is the caffeine affecting my
> thinking?
>
> --
> Jeff Kowing
> jeffrey.d.kowing at nasa.gov
>


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