[TxMt] TextMate wants my password in order to save a file

[Allan Odgaard]

On 13/3/2006, at 6:01, Charilaos Skiadas wrote:

> On Mar 12, 2006, at 10:51 PM, Gavin Kistner wrote:
>> FWIW, sometimes when I edit root-owned files, I have to  
>> authenticate twice in a row before the file saves. But then it  
>> saves just fine.
> That happens to me too. The first time I save a root-owned file it  
> authenticates twice, but in any subsequent saves of the file it  
> authenticates only once.

The reason is that TM uses a bundled helper tool to do the actual  
saving.

This tool has setuid and is owned by root, meaning that everything it  
does, is done as root. To operate, this tool needs a  
com.macromates.textmate.openfile.readwrite.* right.

So normally when you save a file, and a password is requested,  
TextMate does not ask for the right to execute a program as root,  
instead it asks to obtain the right which is named above (for which  
things like who should be able to obtain it, for how long the right  
should be granted w/o password before asking for a new (timeout) etc.  
can be adjusted in the /etc/authorization file (for this right  
specifically, or for rights matching a pattern)).

However, since I cannot ship TextMate with the helper tool owned by  
roor and with the setuid bit set, I need to have TextMate setup the  
helper tool correct, and this can only be done as root.

So the first password requester asks for the right to execute code as  
root (basically sudo), and the second password requester then asks  
for the lesser right of simply operating the helper tool (enforced by  
the helper tool itself).

After having setup the helper tool correctly, there should no longer  
be asked permission to run code as root, and only one password  
requester should appear (but when/if you upgrade TM, the state of the  
helper tool is reset, and afterwards you will again get two password  
requesters).

I don’t know how easy this was to follow, but put shortly: it should  
ask for password twice, because it wants to do two different things,  
for which the rights are different.