[ python-Bugs-1750013 ] os.getlogin should use the DISPLAY and not the tty

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Bugs item #1750013, was opened at 2007-07-08 22:02
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by loewis
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Category: None
Group: None
>Status: Closed
>Resolution: Invalid
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Serge Noiraud (snoiraud)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: os.getlogin should use the DISPLAY and not the tty

Initial Comment:
Hi,

I have the following with gramps on kubuntu ( KDE ).
My terminals are "konsole". They don't register their pty
in utmp and I think they are correct. We are already logged. so if we register again for each konsole, we have a bad user count.

In these case, os.getlogin() return :
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

I think getlogin should use the DISPLAY instead of the tty when we get this error.

to correct this problem I use :

try:
     user=os.getlogin()
except:
     user=os.environ.get("USER")

but I'm not sure os.environ.get return the good value on every OSes ...

I have tested too :
except:
     user = pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid())[0]

What is the best solution  to this problem.

I looked at all bugs about getlogin and I saw we should avoid this function.
What is in this case the function we should use and which works correctly on every OS ( Linux, Unices, Windows, MAC OS/X, ... )


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>Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2007-07-10 10:45

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=21627
Originator: NO

os.getlogin is a wrapper around the getlogin(3) POSIX function. It is
important that Python exposes the function as-is, rather than trying to be
more clever than the operating system designers. getlogin(3) is specified
as "getlogin()  returns a pointer to a string containing the name of the
user logged in on the controlling terminal of the process, or a null
pointer if this information cannot be determined." See the man page for the
precise list of error conditions; ENOENT is returned if there is no utmp
entry.

Whether konsole is correct in not listing the controlling terminal in
utmp, I don't know. Notice that xterm (which should be considered an
authority in such matters) *does* create an utmp entry.

It's not clear to me how DISPLAY could be used at all, but even if it
could, using it here would be incorrect.

Closing as invalid.

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