Introduction to Polkit
Polkit is a toolkit for defining
and handling authorizations. It is used for allowing unprivileged
processes to communicate with privileged processes.
![[Note]](../images/note.png)
Note
Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages
properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most
recent stable versions of the books.
Package Information
Polkit Dependencies
Required
duktape-2.7.0 and GLib-2.82.2
(GObject Introspection recommended)
Recommended
libxslt-1.1.42, Linux-PAM-1.6.1, and
elogind-255.5
Note
Since elogind uses PAM to
register user sessions, it is a good idea to build Polkit with PAM support so elogind can track
Polkit sessions.
Optional
GTK-Doc-1.34.0 and dbusmock-0.32.2 (required for tests)
Optional Runtime
Dependencies
One polkit authentication agent for using polkit in the graphical
environment: polkit-kde-agent in
Plasma-6.1.4 for KDE, the agent built in
gnome-shell-47.1 for GNOME3, polkit-gnome-0.105 for XFCE, and lxqt-policykit-2.0.0 for LXQt
Kernel
Configuration
Some tests need user namespace. If running the test suite, enable
it:
General setup --->
-*- Namespaces support ---> [NAMESPACES]
[*] User namespace [USER_NS]
Installation of Polkit
There should be a dedicated user and group to take control of the
polkitd daemon after
it is started. Issue the following commands as the root user:
groupadd -fg 27 polkitd &&
useradd -c "PolicyKit Daemon Owner" -d /etc/polkit-1 -u 27 \
-g polkitd -s /bin/false polkitd
First fix a build problem for sysV based systems:
sed -i '/systemd_sysusers_dir/s/^/#/' meson.build
Install Polkit by running the
following commands:
mkdir build &&
cd build &&
meson setup .. \
--prefix=/usr \
--buildtype=release \
-D man=true \
-D session_tracking=elogind \
-D tests=true
Build the package:
ninja
To test the results, first ensure that the system D-Bus daemon is running, and both D-Bus Python-1.3.2 and dbusmock-0.32.2 are installed. Then run
ninja test.
Now, as the root user:
ninja install
Command Explanations
--buildtype=release:
Specify a buildtype suitable for stable releases of the package, as
the default may produce unoptimized binaries.
-D tests=true: This switch
allows to run the test suite of this package. As Polkit is used for authorizations, its
integrity can affect system security. So it's recommended to run
the test suite building this package.
-D os_type=lfs: Use this switch if you
did not create the /etc/lfs-release
file or distribution auto detection will fail and you will be
unable to use Polkit.
-D authfw=shadow: This switch enables
the package to use the Shadow
rather than the Linux PAM
Authentication framework. Use it if you have not installed
Linux PAM.
-D introspection=false: Use this option
if you are certain that you do not need gobject-introspection files
for polkit, or do not have installed GLib-2.82.2 with
GObject Introspection.
-D man=false: Use this option to
disable generating and installing manual pages. This is useful if
libxslt is not installed.
-D examples=true: Use this option to
build the example programs.
-D gtk_doc=true: Use this option to
enable building and installing the API documentation.
Contents
Installed Programs:
pkaction, pkcheck, pkexec, pkttyagent,
and polkitd
Installed Libraries:
libpolkit-agent-1.so and
libpolkit-gobject-1.so
Installed Directories:
/etc/polkit-1, /usr/include/polkit-1,
/usr/lib/polkit-1, /usr/share/gtk-doc/html/polkit-1, and
/usr/share/polkit-1
Short Descriptions
|
pkaction
|
is used to obtain information about registered PolicyKit
actions
|
|
pkcheck
|
is used to check whether a process is authorized for
action
|
|
pkexec
|
allows an authorized user to execute a command as another
user
|
|
pkttyagent
|
is used to start a textual authentication agent for the
subject
|
|
polkitd
|
provides the org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1 D-Bus service on the system message
bus
|
|
libpolkit-agent-1.so
|
contains the Polkit
authentication agent API functions
|
|
libpolkit-gobject-1.so
|
contains the Polkit
authorization API functions
|