1PKCHECK(1) pkcheck PKCHECK(1)
2
6 pkcheck - Check whether a process is authorized
7
9 pkcheck [--version] [--help]
10 pkcheck --action-id action
12 {--process { pid | pid,pid-start-time | pid,pid-start-time,uid }
13 | --system-bus-name busname} [--allow-user-interaction]
14 [--detail key value...]
15
17 pkcheck is used to check whether a process, specified by either
18 --process (see below) or --system-bus-name, is authorized for action.
19 The --detail option can be used zero or more times to pass details
20 about action. If --allow-user-interaction is passed, pkcheck blocks
21 while waiting for authentication.
22 This command is a simple wrapper around the PolicyKit D-Bus interface;
24 see the D-Bus interface documentation for details.
25
27 If the specified process is authorized, pkcheck exits with a return
28 value of 0. If the authorization result contains any details, these are
29 printed on standard output as key/value pairs using environment style
30 reporting, e.g. first the key followed by a an equal sign, then the
31 value followed by a newline.
32 KEY1=VALUE1
34 KEY2=VALUE2
35 KEY3=VALUE3
36 ...
37 Octects that are not in [a-zA-Z0-9_] are escaped using octal codes
39 prefixed with \. For example, the UTF-8 string føl,你好 will be printed
40 as f\303\270l\54\344\275\240\345\245\275.
41 If the specificied process is not authorized, pkcheck exits with a
43 return value of 1 and a diagnostic message is printed on standard
44 error. Details are printed on standard output.
45 If the specificied process is not authorized because no suitable
47 authentication agent is available or if the --allow-user-interaction
48 wasn´t passed, pkcheck exits with a return value of 2 and a diagnostic
49 message is printed on standard error. Details are printed on standard
50 output.
51 If an error occured while checking for authorization, pkcheck exits
53 with a return value of 127 with a diagnostic message printed on
54 standard error.
55 If one or more of the options passed are malformed, pkcheck exits with
57 a return value of 126. If stdin is a tty, then this manual page is also
58 shown.
59
61 Do not use either the bare pid or pid,start-time syntax forms for
62 --process. There are race conditions in both. New code should always
63 use pid,pid-start-time,uid. The value of start-time can be determined
64 by consulting e.g. the proc(5) file system depending on the operating
65 system. If fewer than 3 arguments are passed, pkcheck will attempt to
66 look up them up internally, but note that this may be racy.
67 If your program is a daemon with e.g. a custom Unix domain socket, you
69 should determine the uid parameter via operating system mechanisms such
70 as PEERCRED.
71
73 Written by David Zeuthen davidz@redhat.com with a lot of help from many
74 others.
75
77 Please send bug reports to either the distribution or the polkit-devel
78 mailing list, see the link
79 http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/polkit-devel on how to
80 subscribe.
81
83 polkit(8), pkaction(1), pkexec(1)
84polkit May 2009 PKCHECK(1)