* Package name    : everpad
  Version         : 2.5
  Upstream Author : Vladimir Iakovlev <nvbn.rm@gmail.com>
* URL             : https://github.com/nvbn/everpad
* License         : MIT/Expat
  Programming Lang: Python
  Description     : Evernote client for GNU/Linux

Everpad allows to interact with the Evernote service right from your desktop.
It supports notes, tags, notebooks, resources, places and en-* tags.

Evernote does not provide a client for GNU/Linux. Everpad is one of the 3rd party
clients that provide a native client for that service.
It is currently available from a PPA maintained by upstream, but looking at the
number of bug reports of the type [does not start] it feels like the package
could benefit from a greater QA process, which Debian is known for. Also,
packaging it straight into Debian means greater ease of installation for a large
number of users, and would remove the need to add yet-another PPA.

I hope to be able to use the base packaging from the PPA, at least for
inspiration. Building on the shoulders of giants and stuff ;)

I have opened an issue on upstream's GitHub [0] to track the work needed to
properly package Everpad for Debian.

I am open to maintain this package in a team. The most appropriate team would
likely be the Python Applications Packaging Team (PAPT) [1].

As I'm a DM, not yet DD, I will need a sponsor to upload the package.

[0] https://github.com/nvbn/everpad/issues/387
[1] https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/PythonAppsPackagingTeam

The Debian source package from the PPA can be found here:
https://launchpad.net/~nvbn-rm/+archive/ppa/+packages?field.name_filter=everpad&field.status_filter=published&field.series_filter=

   +Emilien

I've created a manpage and sent it upstream:
https://github.com/nvbn/everpad/pull/400

   +Emilien

Hi,

TLDR: is it possible to run a command as another user using su, if
that user is a system user?


I'm trying to solve bug#739637 by running the command as user
gnuhealth, using the command `su` instead of `sudo`.

Let's take a simple example to start, running the command whoami as
another user, from a root shell.

First, become root by your prefered way (I use sudo ;) )
emilien@debiansid:~$ sudo su -
[sudo] password for emilien:
root@debiansid:~#

Running the command using sudo, I see the username being returned as expected:

root@debiansid:~# sudo -u gnuhealth whoami
gnuhealth


Now trying to reproduce that using su.
According to the manpage:
su [options] [username]
-c, --command COMMAND

So I would expect to first have the command name su, then -c and the
command to execute, and then the username.

root@debiansid:~# su -c whoami gnuhealth
root@debiansid:~#

That doesn't return the expected output.

Trying different kinds of possibilities (quoting the command, using =
and putting the username before the command) doesn't give better
results:

root@debiansid:~# su -c "whoami" gnuhealth
root@debiansid:~# su -c=whoami gnuhealth
root@debiansid:~# su -c="whoami" gnuhealth
root@debiansid:~# su --command whoami gnuhealth
root@debiansid:~# su --command "whoami" gnuhealth
root@debiansid:~# su --command=whoami gnuhealth
root@debiansid:~# su --command="whoami" gnuhealth
root@debiansid:~# su gnuhealth -c whoami
root@debiansid:~# su gnuhealth -c "whoami"
root@debiansid:~# su gnuhealth -c=whoami
root@debiansid:~# su gnuhealth -c="whoami"
root@debiansid:~# su gnuhealth --command whoami
root@debiansid:~# su gnuhealth --command "whoami"
root@debiansid:~# su gnuhealth --command=whoami
root@debiansid:~# su gnuhealth --command="whoami"
root@debiansid:~#

The weird part is that running these commands [*] in a terminal on my
Ubuntu host machine *do* return the expected username back.
What could be the reason I don't get the command su to run on my
Debian sid machine?
Are you able to run that?


Aaaaaah, wait, now that I'm typing this, I have an enlightenment: the
user is created as a system user (I believed according to the
instructions on the GNU Health wiki, but I can't find that back now).
Could that be the reason why I can't get su to run the command as that
user?

User creation is done in gnuhealth-server.postinst by this command:
adduser --home /var/lib/gnuhealth --quiet --system --group gnuhealth


Questions:
- Is it possible to run a command as another user using su, if that
user is a system user?
- Should the created user not be a system user?

Cheers,
   +Emilien


[*] except the variants using = with -c

Please ignore the previous message (Fri, 28 Feb 2014 22:54:46 +0100),
it was meant for package gnuhealth, bug#739657.

I have started creating the Debian package.
Once I've got a working package, I'll use `svn-inject -o` to maintain
in as part of the Python Applications Packaging Team.
Until that point, I have created a Git branch to track my changes to
the package:
https://github.com/e2jk/everpad/tree/debian

   +Emilien

FYI I am no longer actively using Evernote, and thus Everpad.
My initial work on the Debian package can still be found at
https://github.com/e2jk/everpad/tree/debian

The Ubuntu PPA also still exists, if that can be of any help, see
https://github.com/nvbn/everpad#installation
   +Emilien