ls-R generation as nobody

The generation of ls-R files was recently changed to be run as nobody,
instead of the user invoking mktexlsr (see diff at end). This creates a
problem for files which are not supposed to be accessible to every user
on the system, eg commercial pfb files [1]. Access to those files can
easily be controlled by appropriate group ownerships. However, "nobody"
isn't member of that group, and it's probably not a good idea to change
that.

Obviously I can edit the script, but is there a recommended way to deal
with this?

Thanks much,

Volker

[1] dvips in this case says it includes the pfb files, but in fact
doesn't, and doesn't show a warning either. This is probably the same
error as noted on the TeX-k list within the last week. I'm not sure
whether it would be preferable to terminate with error or create output
which looks distinctly dodgy because of font substitutions.



--- /usr/share/texmf/teTeX/bin/i586-linux-libc6/mktexlsr-tetex-2.0.2-198.3	2004-10-05 07:27:25.000000000 +1300
+++ /usr/share/texmf/teTeX/bin/i586-linux-libc6/mktexlsr-tetex-2.0.2-198.7	2005-04-02 07:29:46.000000000 +1200
@@ -66,6 +66,14 @@
 test $# = 0 && {
   OIFS=$IFS; IFS=$SEP; set x `kpsewhich --show-path=ls-R 2>/dev/null`; shift; IFS=$OIFS
 }
+
+nobody="$(id -un nobody)"
+if test "$(id -ur 2> /dev/null)" = "0" -a -n "$nobody" ; then
+    runls () { su $nobody -s /bin/sh -c 'exec -a ls ls -LRa 2>/dev/null'; }
+else
+    runls () { ls -LRa 2>/dev/null; }
+fi
+
 cache="`kpsewhich --expand-var='$VARTEXFONTS'`"
 for TEXMFLS_R in "$@"; do
   # Prepend cwd if the directory was relative.
@@ -133,7 +141,7 @@
   # removes . and .. from the list.  Note that using colons in directory
   # names results in nothing but grief.
   echo "./:" >>"$db_file_tmp"
-  (cd "$TEXMFLS_R" && \ls -LRa 2>/dev/null) |
+  (cd "$TEXMFLS_R" && \runls) |
     sed '/^\(\.\|\.\/\.\)\?lsR[0-9]\+\.\(tmp\|[0-9]\+\):\?/d
 	 /^\.:\?$/d
 	 /^\.\.$/d


-- 
Volker Kuhlmann			is possibly list0570 with the domain in header
http://volker.dnsalias.net/		Please do not CC list postings to me.