Deprecated --allow-root and always drop privileges.

doc/changelog.txt

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ Changes:
 - gui: Use Alt-key shortcuts for menu entries.
 - checking: Improved thread locking and reduce calls to time.sleep().
 - cmdline: Deprecated the --priority commandline option.
+- cmdline: Deprecated the --allow-root commandline option.
 
 Features:
 - checking: Added support for Google Chrome bookmark files.

doc/de/linkchecker.1

@@ -71,10 +71,6 @@ positive Nummer an.
 \fB\-V\fP, \fB\-\-version\fP
 Gebe die Version aus und beende das Programm.
 .TP 
-\fB\-\-allow\-root\fP
-Keine Entziehung der Priviligien, falls das Programm unter Unix als Benutzer
-root läuft.
-.TP 
 \fB\-\-stdin\fP
 Lese Liste von URLs zum Prüfen von der Standardeingabe, getrennt durch
 Leerzeichen.

doc/en/linkchecker.1

@@ -70,9 +70,6 @@ of threads is 10. To disable threading specify a non-positive number.
 \fB\-V\fP, \fB\-\-version\fP
 Print version and exit.
 .TP
-\fB\-\-allow\-root\fP
-Do not drop privileges when running as root user on Unix systems.
-.TP
 \fB\-\-stdin\fP
 Read list of white-space separated URLs to check from stdin.
 .

linkcheck/__init__.py

@@ -140,3 +140,14 @@ def init_i18n ():
 
 # initialize i18n, puts _() function into global namespace
 init_i18n()
+
+
+def drop_privileges ():
+    """Make sure to drop root privileges on POSIX systems."""
+    if os.name != 'posix':
+        return
+    if os.geteuid() == 0:
+        log.warn(LOG_CHECK, _("Running as root user; "
+                       "dropping privileges by changing user to nobody."))
+        import pwd
+        os.seteuid(pwd.getpwnam('nobody')[3])

linkchecker

@@ -206,17 +206,6 @@ def print_usage (msg):
     sys.exit(1)
 
 
-def ensure_notroot ():
-    """Make sure LinkChecker is not run under root on POSIX systems."""
-    if os.name != 'posix':
-        return
-    if os.geteuid() == 0:
-        log.warn(LOG_CMDLINE, _("Running as root user; "
-                       "dropping privileges by changing user to nobody."))
-        import pwd
-        os.seteuid(pwd.getpwnam('nobody')[3])
-
-
 def viewprof ():
     """Print profiling data and exit."""
     if not has_pstats:
@@ -344,13 +333,15 @@ group.add_option("-t", "--threads", type="int", dest="threads",
                  help=_(
 """Generate no more than the given number of threads. Default number
 of threads is 10. To disable threading specify a non-positive number."""))
+# XXX deprecated
 group.add_option("--priority", action="store_true", dest="priority",
                  help=_("""This option is deprecated and does nothing."""))
 group.add_option("-V", "--version", action="store_true", dest="version",
                  help=_("""Print version and exit."""))
+# XXX deprecated
 group.add_option("--allow-root", action="store_true", dest="allowroot",
-                 default=False, help=_(
-"""Do not drop privileges when running as root user on Unix systems."""))
+                 default=False,
+                 help=_("""This option is deprecated and does nothing."""))
 group.add_option("--stdin", action="store_true", dest="stdin",
                  help=_(
 """Read list of white-space separated URLs to check from stdin."""))
@@ -587,9 +578,7 @@ try:
 except linkcheck.LinkCheckerError, msg:
     # config error
     print_usage(str(msg))
-# test if running with root privileges
-if not options.allowroot:
-    ensure_notroot()
+linkcheck.drop_privileges()
 # test if running with -O
 if options.debug and not __debug__:
     log.warn(LOG_CMDLINE, _("Running with python -O disables debugging."))

linkchecker-gui

@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Check HTML pages for broken links. This is the GUI client.
 import sys
 from PyQt4.QtGui import QApplication, QStyleFactory
 from linkcheck.gui import LinkCheckerMain
-from linkcheck import configuration
+from linkcheck import configuration, drop_privileges
 
 ## Look and feel with stylesheets
 # In Cleanlooks the progress bar text is outside the bar.
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ def main (argv=None):
         url = u""
     window = LinkCheckerMain(url=url)
     window.show()
+    drop_privileges()
     sys.exit(app.exec_())