[Linux-disciples] Apt questions

[Stephen R Laniel]

Apt-get can only be run by root, even though I swear I
used to run it without sudo. But apparently that's the way
it is:

-rwxr-x---  1 root root 118184 2005-04-06 16:38 /usr/bin/apt-get

Doesn't that seem overzealous? Apt-get source, for instance,
is totally harmless, and anyone should be able to run it.
The Unixy solution here would be to pull off a separate
program (apt-source, say), which doesn't install any
packages and hence doesn't require root privileges. Or is
there some other way to make some verbs within apt-get
root-only and other verbs usable by normal users?

(This dovetails nicely with some recent questions I've had
about whether permissions and ownership can be specified at
a very fine level -- such as at the level of individual
function calls.)

-- 
Stephen R. Laniel
steve at laniels.org
+(617) 308-5571
http://laniels.org/