source: postlfs/security/polkit.xml@ 8c6e1682

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
  %general-entities;

  <!ENTITY polkit-download-http "https://www.freedesktop.org/software/polkit/releases/polkit-&polkit-version;.tar.gz">
  <!ENTITY polkit-download-ftp  " ">
  <!ENTITY polkit-md5sum        "a6efe21d021fafe4191ee30331ef801c">
  <!ENTITY polkit-size          "1.6 MB">
  <!ENTITY polkit-buildsize     "12 MB">
  <!ENTITY polkit-time          "0.1 SBU (Using parallelism=4)">
]>

<sect1 id="polkit" xreflabel="Polkit-&polkit-version;">
  <?dbhtml filename="polkit.html"?>

  <sect1info>
    <date>$Date$</date>
  </sect1info>

  <title>Polkit-&polkit-version;</title>

  <indexterm zone="polkit">
    <primary sortas="a-Polkit">Polkit</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <sect2 role="package">
    <title>Introduction to Polkit</title>

    <para>
      <application>Polkit</application> is a toolkit for defining and handling
      authorizations. It is used for allowing unprivileged processes to
      communicate with privileged processes.
    </para>

    &lfs110a_checked;

    <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Package Information</bridgehead>
    <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Download (HTTP): <ulink url="&polkit-download-http;"/>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Download (FTP): <ulink url="&polkit-download-ftp;"/>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Download MD5 sum: &polkit-md5sum;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Download size: &polkit-size;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Estimated disk space required: &polkit-buildsize;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Estimated build time: &polkit-time;
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Additional Downloads</bridgehead>
    <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Required patch:
          <ulink url="&patch-root;/polkit-&polkit-version;-security_fix-1.patch"/>
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Polkit Dependencies</bridgehead>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Required</bridgehead>
    <para role="required">
      <xref linkend="glib2"/> and
      <xref linkend="js78"/>
    </para>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Recommended</bridgehead>
    <para role="recommended">
      <xref linkend="gobject-introspection"/>,
      <xref linkend="libxslt"/>,
      <xref linkend="linux-pam"/>
      <phrase revision="sysv">
        and <xref role="first" linkend="elogind"/>
      </phrase>
    </para>

    <note>
      <para>
        Since <phrase revision="sysv"><command>elogind</command></phrase>
        <phrase revision="systemd"><command>systemd-logind</command></phrase>
        uses PAM to register user sessions, it is a good idea to build
        <application>Polkit</application> with PAM support so
        <phrase revision="sysv"><command>elogind</command></phrase>
        <phrase revision="systemd"><command>systemd-logind</command></phrase>
        can track <application>Polkit</application> sessions.
      </para>
    </note>


    <!-- Due to the fact that meson will not autodetect g-i and
         has it set to required unless you pass an option, and the likelihood
         of users ignoring a command explanation and then sending in mails
         regarding KDE or GNOME not working after installing polkit, let's move
         it to recommended. See #15640 for logic
    <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Optional (Required if building GNOME)</bridgehead>
    <para role="optional">
      <xref linkend="gobject-introspection"/>
    </para>
    -->

    <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Optional</bridgehead>
    <para role="optional">
      <xref linkend="dbus-python"/> and
      <xref linkend="python-dbusmock"/> (for tests), and
      <!--<xref linkend="DocBook"/>, (Part of libxslt's chain)
      <xref linkend="docbook-xsl"/>,-->
      <xref linkend="gtk-doc"/>
    </para>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect4" revision="systemd">Required Runtime Dependencies</bridgehead>
    <para role="required" revision="systemd">
      <xref role="runtime" linkend="systemd"/>
    </para>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect4" id="polkit-agent" xreflabel="Polkit Authentication Agent">
      Optional Runtime Dependencies
    </bridgehead>
    <para role="optional">
      One polkit authentication agent for using polkit in the graphical
      environment:
      <application>polkit-kde-agent</application> in
      <xref role="runtime" linkend="plasma5-build"/> for KDE,
      the agent built in
      <xref role="runtime" linkend="gnome-shell"/> for GNOME3,
      <xref role="runtime" linkend="polkit-gnome"/> for XFCE, and
      <application>lxpolkit</application> in
      <xref role="runtime" linkend="lxsession"/> for LXDE.
    </para>

    <note>
      <para>
        If <xref linkend="libxslt"/> is installed,
        then <xref linkend="DocBook"/> and <xref linkend="docbook-xsl"/> are
        required. If you have installed <xref linkend="libxslt"/>, but you do
        not want to install any of the DocBook packages mentioned, you will
        need to use <option>-Dman=false</option> in the instructions
        below.
      </para>
    </note>

    <para condition="html" role="usernotes">User Notes:
      <ulink url="&blfs-wiki;/polkit"/>
    </para>
  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="installation">
    <title>Installation of Polkit</title>

    <para>
      There should be a dedicated user and group to take control
      of the <command>polkitd</command> daemon after it is
      started. Issue the following commands as the
      <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user:
    </para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>groupadd -fg 27 polkitd &amp;&amp;
useradd -c "PolicyKit Daemon Owner" -d /etc/polkit-1 -u 27 \
        -g polkitd -s /bin/false polkitd</userinput></screen>

<!-- All of this is irrelevant with meson
    <note revision="systemd">
      <para>
        When building <application>Polkit</application> with
        <application>systemd</application> logind support, the
        <command>configure</command> script explicitly checks if
        system is booted using <application>systemd</application>.
        This can cause problems if building the package in chroot,
        where the <command>configure</command> would fail to
        detect <application>systemd</application>. To workaround
        the problem, simply run the following command:
      </para>

<screen><userinput>sed -i "s:/sys/fs/cgroup/systemd/:/sys:g" configure</userinput></screen>
    </note>

    <para revision="sysv">
      Fix an issue introduced in recent <application>Polkit</application>
      releases with elogind:
    </para>

<screen revision="sysv"><userinput>patch -Np1 -i ../polkit-&polkit-version;-fix_elogind_detection-1.patch &amp;&amp;
autoreconf -fv</userinput></screen>
-->

    <para>
      First, fix problems with setting permissions during installation and with
      meson-0.60.0:
    </para>

<screen><userinput remap="pre">sed '/0,/s/^/#/' -i meson_post_install.py &amp;&amp;
sed '/policy,/d' -i actions/meson.build \
                 -i src/examples/meson.build</userinput></screen>

    <para>
      Apply a patch to fix a security issue:
    </para>

<screen><userinput remap="pre">patch -Np1 -i ../polkit-&polkit-version;-security_fix-1.patch</userinput></screen>

    <para>
      Install <application>Polkit</application> by running the following
      commands:
    </para>

<screen revision="systemd"><userinput>mkdir build &amp;&amp;
cd    build &amp;&amp;

meson --prefix=/usr                       \
      -Dman=true                          \
      -Dsession_tracking=libsystemd-login \
      --buildtype=release                 \
      ..                                  &amp;&amp;
ninja</userinput></screen>

<screen revision="sysv"><userinput>mkdir build &amp;&amp;
cd    build &amp;&amp;

meson --prefix=/usr                 \
      -Dman=true                    \
      -Dsession_tracking=libelogind \
      -Dsystemdsystemunitdir=/tmp   \
      --buildtype=release           \
      ..                            &amp;&amp;
ninja</userinput></screen>

<!--
    <para>
      To test the results, first ensure that the system
      <application>D-Bus</application> daemon is running.
      Then run <command>make check</command>.
    </para>
-->

<!-- The subprojects directory which contains a wrapper for 'mocklibc'
     is not shipped in the tarball like it should be. Whenever that is
     fixed, -Dtests=true and ninja test is the ticket. -->

    <para>
      This package does not ship with a working test suite.
    </para>

    <para>
      Now, as the <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user:
    </para>

<screen role="root" revision="systemd"><userinput>ninja install</userinput></screen>

<screen role="root" revision="sysv"><userinput>ninja install &amp;&amp;
rm -v /tmp/*.service</userinput></screen>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="commands">
    <title>Command Explanations</title>

    <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
      href="../../xincludes/meson-buildtype-release.xml"/>

    <!--
    <para revision="sysv">
      <parameter>- -disable-libsystemd-login</parameter>: This switch forces
      polkit to build with elogind support (if available) rather than
      systemd-logind.
    </para>

    
    <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
      href="../../xincludes/static-libraries.xml"/>
    -->
    
    <para>
      <option>-Dauthfw=shadow</option>: This switch enables the
      package to use the <application>Shadow</application> rather than the
      <application>Linux PAM</application> Authentication framework. Use it
      if you have not installed <application>Linux PAM</application>.
    </para>

    <!--
    <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
    href="../../xincludes/gtk-doc-rebuild.xml"/>
    -->

    <para>
      <option>-Dintrospection=false</option>: Use this option if you are certain
      that you do not need gobject-introspection files for polkit, or do not have
      gobject-introspection installed.
    </para>

    <para>
      <option>-Dman=false</option>: Use this option to disable generating and
      installing manual pages. This is useful if libxslt is not installed.
    </para>

    <para>
      <option>-Dexamples=true</option>: Use this option to build the example
      programs.
    </para>

    <para>
      <option>-Dgtk_doc=true</option>: Use this option to enable building and
      installing the API documentation.
    </para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="configuration">
    <title>Configuring Polkit</title>

    <sect3>
      <title>PAM Configuration</title>

      <note>
        <para>
          If you did not build <application>Polkit</application> with
          <application>Linux PAM</application> support, you can skip this
          section.
        </para>
      </note>

      <para>
        If you have built <application>Polkit</application> with
        <application>Linux PAM</application> support, you need to modify
        the default PAM configuration file which was installed by default to get
        <application>Polkit</application> to work correctly with BLFS. Issue the
        following commands as the <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>
        user to create the configuration file for <application>Linux PAM</application>:
      </para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/pam.d/polkit-1 &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal># Begin /etc/pam.d/polkit-1

auth     include        system-auth
account  include        system-account
password include        system-password
session  include        system-session

# End /etc/pam.d/polkit-1</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>

    </sect3>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="content">
    <title>Contents</title>

    <segmentedlist>
      <segtitle>Installed Programs</segtitle>
      <segtitle>Installed Libraries</segtitle>
      <segtitle>Installed Directories</segtitle>

      <seglistitem>
        <seg>
          pkaction, pkcheck, <!--pk-example-frobnicate,--> pkexec,
          pkttyagent and polkitd
        </seg>
        <seg>
          libpolkit-agent-1.so and
          libpolkit-gobject-1.so
        </seg>
        <seg>
          /etc/polkit-1,
          /usr/include/polkit-1,
          /usr/lib/polkit-1,
          /usr/share/gtk-doc/html/polkit-1 and
          /usr/share/polkit-1
        </seg>
      </seglistitem>
    </segmentedlist>

    <variablelist>
      <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
      <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
      <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>

      <varlistentry id="pkaction">
        <term><command>pkaction</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is used to obtain information about registered PolicyKit actions
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="polkit pkaction">
            <primary sortas="b-pkaction">pkaction</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="pkcheck">
        <term><command>pkcheck</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is used to check whether a process is authorized for action
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="polkit pkcheck">
            <primary sortas="b-pkcheck">pkcheck</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

<!--
      <varlistentry id="pk-example-frobnicate">
        <term><command>pk-example-frobnicate</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is an example program to test the <command>pkexec</command>
            command
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="polkit pk-example-frobnicate">
            <primary sortas="b-pk-example-frobnicate">pk-example-frobnicate</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
-->
      
      <varlistentry id="pkexec">
        <term><command>pkexec</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            allows an authorized user to execute a command as another user
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="polkit pkexec">
            <primary sortas="b-pkexec">pkexec</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="pkttyagent">
        <term><command>pkttyagent</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is used to start a textual authentication agent for the subject
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="polkit pkttyagent">
            <primary sortas="b-pkttyagent">pkttyagent</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="polkitd">
        <term><command>polkitd</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            provides the org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 <application>D-Bus</application>
            service on the system message bus
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="polkit polkitd">
            <primary sortas="b-polkitd">polkitd</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libpolkit-agent-1">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libpolkit-agent-1.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            contains the <application>Polkit</application> authentication
            agent API functions
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="polkit libpolkit-agent-1">
            <primary sortas="c-libpolkit-agent-1">libpolkit-agent-1.so</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libpolkit-gobject-1">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libpolkit-gobject-1.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            contains the <application>Polkit</application> authorization API functions
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="polkit libpolkit-gobject-1">
            <primary sortas="c-libpolkit-gobject-1">libpolkit-gobject-1.so</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

  </sect2>

</sect1>