Consider dropping support for /var/run/console (--with-console-auth-dir)
Submitted by Simon McVittie
Assigned to Simon McVittie
Link to original bug (#101629)
Description
dbus-daemon implements the deprecated at_console feature (see also Bug #39611) with several mechanisms. One of them is to stat the "tag file" /var/run/console/${username}, and if it exists, that is assumed to signify that ${username} is at the console. Those are the semantics that were implemented by pam_console and pam_foreground, both of which were later superseded by ConsoleKit, which was in turn superseded by systemd-logind (or occasionally ConsoleKit2) on Linux systems.
According to Bug #14053, some distributions patch ConsoleKit to create those tag files, but normally it does not. Judging by Bug #94591, ConsoleKit2 doesn't either.
For completeness, the other mechanisms we have for at_console are:
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for Linux with systemd or systemd-shim: check whether they are logged-in on any seat using systemd-logind APIs
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for Solaris: there is a file that will be owned by the active console user (assumed to be unique!)
I think we should consider removing the "tag files" handling.
Version: git master