Understanding polkit
PolicyKit and polkit aren't part of the systemd ecosystem, but systemd-logind
does provide access to polkit
functionality. PolicyKit was a Red Hat innovation that came on the scene quite a few years ago, and it could be used on various Unix-like operating systems. In 2012, a new version was released with the brand new name, polkit. The developers changed the name as a reminder that this is a whole new code base that isn't compatible with the older version.
The polkit
service is similar to sudo
in that it allows a normally non-privileged user to perform certain privileged tasks. There is, however, a big difference between the two.
The sudo
utility is quite easy to configure, and you can easily grant pretty much any admin privilege or privileges to any user. When you install the operating system, you'll have full sudo
privileges for yourself, and nobody else will have any. On the other hand, polkit
comes pre-configured with a set of administrative...