Misleading message in 'su' info document

Bruce A. Locke blocke at shivan.org
Tue Aug 19 02:24:22 UTC 2003


I'm sure by now most of you have read the "Why GNU 'su' does not support
the 'wheel' group" rant from RMS written years ago.  If you have not
seen it yet do a quick 'info su' and scroll down to the bottom.

What surprises me is this has not been pulled from the 'su' info page
years(?) after pam_wheel showed up in pam.  The statement that GNU 'su'
does not support the 'wheel' group may be technically true in the form
shipped by the GNU but it is misleading when used in Red Hat.  If I were
looking for wheel support and decided to check the su info page (as
suggested by the su man page) I would have read this statement and may
never have figured out the functionality was actually being provided!

In my opinion such historical baggage is harmful and should be pulled
from at least Red Hat's copy of the 'su' info page.

Any opinions?


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Bruce A. Locke
blocke at shivan.org






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