xterm

[Lowell Gilbert]

"Gerald S. Stoller" <gs_stoller at hotmail.com> writes:

> FreeBSD  4.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.3-RELEASE #0: Sat Apr 21 10:54:49 GMT 2001
> jkh at narf.osd.bsdi.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/GENERIC  i386
> 
> 	When working in a  Unix  system, I like to work with several
> windows (if possible) and organize my work among them.  I use  xterm
> (as on the line 'xterm  &') to open new windows.  Recently, I wanted
> to check on my processes and issued the command 'ps -l' and was
> surprised to not find any  xterm processes among them.  So I issued
> the command 'ps -la' and there I found the  xterm  processes but they
> were owned by  root , not by me who had issued the command.  Even
> though I wasn▓t listed *by the ▒ps √la▓ command as the
> owner, I could still kill the  xterm  processes.  I don▓t know
> where the incongruity is, in the  kernel▓s  tables or in the
> reporting by  ps .
>
> 	In multi-user (commercial) systems, I believe that the user
> who invokes the xterm  processes is (listed as) its owner.
> 	I prefer that all processes running in  FreeBSD  be owned by
> the user who invoked them, the exceptions being some system ( root )
> processes used in the  login  process.  (The  xterm  processes are
> included here as non-system processes, so they should be owned by the
> user who invoked them.)  I would like to see  FreeBSD  changed to
> reflect this, but the bug reporting site is down now.  If anyone knows
> of any reasons why the current operation is correct and should be left
> as is, please inform me.

xterm is suid-root, because it needs to open a terminal.  The *shell*
running in the xterm should be owned by the user, but the user doesn't
have sufficient permissions for opening the terminal.

I believe you're wrong about X behaving otherwise on other Unix
systems.