Support for User Services

[cemkeylan]

An idea that might just be scratched. Here is the deal,
we don't want root access to run user services. We also
don't want to run a second instance of sysmgr. Feedback
and ideas are welcome.

This is an idea for the future, svctl must be completely
stabilized before I get to this.

What can be done RIGHT NOW to run user services

• Use a tool like sudo/su/chpst
  This can be done on the usual directory in services [requires root access].
• Run a second instance of sysmgr
  The user can change its environment variables to point
  to his/her home directory. This either has to be done
  manually everytime, or requires the first sysmgr instance
  to do it for them, which again requires root access.

These are messy ways to do it, here is why.

A second instance of sysmgr

• If you do run two instances of sysmgr, you need to change
  your environment variables between calls to different services.
• Your home directory is filled with mess.
• You don't get the advantages of the /run directory, which is
  basically a temporary directory.
• The users could add a temporary directory for this purpose alone.
  But that would still require root access.

Using tools on root services to run user services

This is how I am currently handling it. I have some services that
just do chpst -u cem.

Ideas and questions for user services

• They are stored in ~/.config/sysmgr or ~/.config/sysmgr/enabled
• What is a reliable way of getting HOME and XDG_CONFIG_HOME variables for every non-system user?
• Am I thinking too much on "could I do this" that I disregard "should I do this" ?