ok, i *think* the feedback was that the up2date client should never spit out a 
traceback (certainly doesn't matter to me, just my recollection)

running up2date as a normal user without permission on relevant files

jmm@bp6:/home/jmm> up2date
warning: can't access /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date
warning: can't access /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "/usr/sbin/up2date", line 15, in ?
    from up2date_client import up2date
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/up2date.py", line 714, in ?
    rpm_version = getRpmVersion()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/up2date.py", line 705, in getRpmVersion
    db = openrpmdb()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/up2date.py", line 696, in openrpmdb
    log.log_me("Opening rpmdb in %s with option %s" % (dbpath,option))
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/up2date.py", line 107, in log_me
    self.write_log(s)
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/up2date.py", line 116, in write_log
    self.log_file = open(self.log_file_name, 'a')
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/up2date'