[Kde-games-devel] KHighscore on multiple user systems

[Nicolas Hadacek]

Hi,

[I am cross-posting kde-core since there are some issues about "setgid" 
programs and I think more knowlegeable people are on this list.]

There was from long time ago some support for using a global highscore file 
for every user on a system but there were still two problems to solve. The 
provided patch resolves both but I'd like to have some comments:

1. the global highscore file ("mygame.scores" usually in /var/games) should 
allow write access to the "games" group (a user must not be able to modify 
it...). To modify it, a game program should be "setgid games". My solution is 
to drop this effective group id as soon as possible (before creating 
KApplication) and then to renable it shortly when needed.

2. there should be a locking mechanism for modifying the file so that 
different users playing at the same time do not mangle everything...
I am implementing that with "flock()".
The complete procedure is:

set "games" group id
open global file read only
flock it (if possible)
drop "games" group id
create a temporary file (in /tmp) and copy the global file in it
create a KSimpleConfig on the temp file
...
write new highscores data
...
commit changes to the temporary file
set "games" gid
truncate global file
copy temporary file to global file
drop "games" gid
remove temporary file
unlock global file


I have done some tests which are quite succesful...
What still need to be addressed is having the program executable being "setgig 
games" at installation and creating the global highscore file with the 
correct permissions if it does not exist.

Any comments ?

see you,
Nicolas
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