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Or if not, at least the errors should be more clean Description of problem: [testmonkey@link-13 root]$ lvdisplay /etc/lvm/.cache: open failed: Permission denied No volume groups found /etc/lvm/.cache: fopen failed: Permission denied [testmonkey@link-13 root]$ lvs /etc/lvm/.cache: open failed: Permission denied No volume groups found /etc/lvm/.cache: fopen failed: Permission denied
Yeah - need to think a bit about this one: there are some circumstances where it's useful for non-root users to be able to run the tools. I'm not sure much can be done though apart from displaying a warning message if run by a non-root user. [Useful if the user hasn't realised they aren't root and is puzzled why everything's disappeared.]
In my opinion, this just needs a better diagnostic (ie, the warning Alasdair mentioned). As a non-root, you cannot meaningfully use fdisk nor find out much about partition layout either, so this would probably pose an information leak anyway. For the user-interesting bits, one usually uses "df". I can take care of that warning message.
Comment #2 needs clarification: there is a difference between things the kernel requires you to be root to do, and things (like fdisk) that can be done as non-root but are often restricted by filesystem permissions. Hence my suggestion that we just print a simple general warning when run as root that some functionality may be restricted.
Verified that there's now a warning message.
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2008-0776.html