NAME
pkcheck - Check whether a process is authorized
SYNOPSIS
pkcheck [version] [help]
pkcheck [list-temp]
pkcheck [revoke-temp]
pkcheck action-id action
{process { pid | pid,pid-start-time | pid,pid-start-time,uid }
| system-bus-name busname} [allow-user-interaction]
[enable-internal-agent] [detail key value...]
DESCRIPTION
pkcheck is used to check whether a process, specified by either
process (see below) or system-bus-name, is authorized for action.
The detail option can be used zero or more times to pass details
about action. If allow-user-interaction is passed, pkcheck blocks
while waiting for authentication.
The invocation pkcheck list-temp will list all temporary
authorizations for the current session and pkcheck revoke-temp will
revoke all temporary authorizations for the current session.
This command is a simple wrapper around the polkit D-Bus interface; see
the D-Bus interface documentation for details.
RETURN VALUE
If the specified process is authorized, pkcheck exits with a return
value of 0. If the authorization result contains any details, these are
printed on standard output as key/value pairs using environment style
reporting, e.g. first the key followed by a an equal sign, then the
value followed by a newline.
KEY1=VALUE1
KEY2=VALUE2
KEY3=VALUE3
...
Octects that are not in [a-zA-Z0-9] are escaped using octal codes
prefixed with \. For example, the UTF-8 string føl,你好 will be printed
as f\303\270l\54\344\275\240\345\245\275.
If the specificied process is not authorized, pkcheck exits with a
return value of 1 and a diagnostic message is printed on standard
error. Details are printed on standard output.
If the specificied process is not authorized because no suitable
authentication agent is available or if the allow-user-interaction
wasn't passed, pkcheck exits with a return value of 2 and a diagnostic
message is printed on standard error. Details are printed on standard
output.
If the specificied process is not authorized because the authentication
dialog / request was dismissed by the user, pkcheck exits with a return
value of 3 and a diagnostic message is printed on standard error.
Details are printed on standard output.
If an error occured while checking for authorization, pkcheck exits
with a return value of 127 with a diagnostic message printed on
standard error.
If one or more of the options passed are malformed, pkcheck exits with
a return value of 126. If stdin is a tty, then this manual page is also
shown.
NOTES
Do not use either the bare pid or pid,start-time syntax forms for
process. There are race conditions in both. New code should always
use pid,pid-start-time,uid. The value of start-time can be determined
by consulting e.g. the proc(5) file system depending on the operating
system. If fewer than 3 arguments are passed, pkcheck will attempt to
look up them up internally, but note that this may be racy.
If your program is a daemon with e.g. a custom Unix domain socket, you
should determine the uid parameter via operating system mechanisms such
as PEERCRED.
AUTHENTICATION AGENT
pkcheck, like any other polkit application, will use the authentication
agent registered for the process in question. However, if no
authentication agent is available, then pkcheck can register its own
textual authentication agent if the option enable-internal-agent is
passed.
AUTHOR
Written by David Zeuthen with a lot of help from
many others.
BUGS
Please send bug reports to either the distribution or the polkit-devel
mailing list, see the link
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/polkit-devel on how to
subscribe.
SEE ALSO
polkit(8), polkitd(8), pkaction(1), pkexec(1), pkttyagent(1)
polkit May 2009 PKCHECK(1)