Manual: pkcheck

PKCHECK(1)						   pkcheck						  PKCHECK(1)

NAME
       pkcheck - Check whether a process is authorized

SYNOPSIS

       pkcheck [--version] [--help|-h]

       pkcheck [--list-temp]

       pkcheck [--revoke-temp]

       pkcheck --action-id|-a action {--process|-p { pid | pid,pid-start-time | pid,pid-start-time,uid } |
	       --system-bus-name|-s busname} [--allow-user-interaction|-u] [--enable-internal-agent]
	       [--detail|-d 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
	   ...

       Octets 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 specified 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 specified 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 specified 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 occurred 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
       https://github.com/polkit-org/polkit#bugs-and-development.

SEE ALSO
       polkit(8), polkitd(8), pkaction(1), pkexec(1), pkttyagent(1)

polkit							  May 2009						  PKCHECK(1)