NAME

       pkcheck - Check whether a process is authorized

SYNOPSIS

       pkcheck [--version] [--help|-h]

       pkcheck [--list-temp]

       pkcheck [--revoke-temp]

       pkcheck --action-id|-a action
               {--process|-p { pid | pid,pid-start-time | pid,pid-start-time,uid } |
               --system-bus-name|-s busname} [--allow-user-interaction|-u]
               [--enable-internal-agent] [--detail|-d key value...]

DESCRIPTION

       pkcheck is used to check whether a process, specified by either --process (see below) or
       --system-bus-name, is authorized for action. The --detail option can be used zero or more
       times to pass details about action. If --allow-user-interaction is passed, pkcheck blocks
       while waiting for authentication.

       The invocation pkcheck --list-temp will list all temporary authorizations for the current
       session and pkcheck --revoke-temp will revoke all temporary authorizations for the current
       session.

       This command is a simple wrapper around the polkit D-Bus interface; see the D-Bus
       interface documentation for details.

RETURN VALUE

       If the specified process is authorized, pkcheck exits with a return value of 0. If the
       authorization result contains any details, these are printed on standard output as
       key/value pairs using environment style reporting, e.g. first the key followed by a an
       equal sign, then the value followed by a newline.

           KEY1=VALUE1
           KEY2=VALUE2
           KEY3=VALUE3
           ...

       Octets that are not in [a-zA-Z0-9_] are escaped using octal codes prefixed with \. For
       example, the UTF-8 string føl,你好 will be printed as
       f\303\270l\54\344\275\240\345\245\275.

       If the specified process is not authorized, pkcheck exits with a return value of 1 and a
       diagnostic message is printed on standard error. Details are printed on standard output.

       If the specified process is not authorized because no suitable authentication agent is
       available or if the --allow-user-interaction wasn't passed, pkcheck exits with a return
       value of 2 and a diagnostic message is printed on standard error. Details are printed on
       standard output.

       If the specified process is not authorized because the authentication dialog / request was
       dismissed by the user, pkcheck exits with a return value of 3 and a diagnostic message is
       printed on standard error. Details are printed on standard output.

       If an error occurred while checking for authorization, pkcheck exits with a return value
       of 127 with a diagnostic message printed on standard error.

       If one or more of the options passed are malformed, pkcheck exits with a return value of
       126. If stdin is a tty, then this manual page is also shown.

NOTES

       Do not use either the bare pid or pid,start-time syntax forms for --process. There are
       race conditions in both. New code should always use pid,pid-start-time,uid. The value of
       start-time can be determined by consulting e.g. the proc(5) file system depending on the
       operating system. If fewer than 3 arguments are passed, pkcheck will attempt to look up
       them up internally, but note that this may be racy.

       If your program is a daemon with e.g. a custom Unix domain socket, you should determine
       the uid parameter via operating system mechanisms such as PEERCRED.

AUTHENTICATION AGENT

       pkcheck, like any other polkit application, will use the authentication agent registered
       for the process in question. However, if no authentication agent is available, then
       pkcheck can register its own textual authentication agent if the option
       --enable-internal-agent is passed.

AUTHOR

       Written by David Zeuthen <davidz@redhat.com> with a lot of help from many others.

BUGS

       Please send bug reports to either the distribution or the polkit-devel mailing list, see
       the link https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/polkit/polkit/-/issues/ on how to subscribe.

SEE ALSO

       polkit(8), polkitd(8), pkaction(1), pkexec(1), pkttyagent(1)