On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 07:00:04PM -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:
> [running amdump in] The 
> group backup is also generally acceptable.

It depends.  If you're using gtar, that runs as root, so indeed,
the group shouldn't be relevent.  (Avoiding important groups like
root is a good idea from a security point of view, but shouldn't
affect correct operation.)

If you're using dump, though, amdump usually has to run in the
group that owns the relevent special files (/dev/whatever).
Which group that is, is system-dependent; I've seen "disk",
"operator", and "sys".  (Of course you could chgrp the special
files instead, but that's less wise because something, e.g. a
system upgrade or an automated file-permissions-fixer, might
chgrp them back.)

I said "amdump *usually* has to run..." because on some systems,
dump needs to run as root; in that case, I don't know whether the
group matters -- same reasoning as for gtar.

Hmmm, maybe rundump could take care of running dump in the
correct group, on those systems where that matters, instead of
not being used at all on such systems...

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        erics AT telepres DOT com
|  |  /
The animal that coils in a circle is the serpent; that's why so
many cults and myths of the serpent exist, because it's hard to
represent the return of the sun by the coiling of a hippopotamus.
        - Umberto Eco, "Foucault's Pendulum"