Permissions for /dev/softsynth

[Hynek Hanke <hanke@brailcom.org>]

Hello,

I'm preparing a Debian package for SpeechD-Up and I'm puzzled with the
permissions to the /dev/softsynth device and the /proc/speakup/
controlls. The device is sometimes created by the user and sometimes
automatically, the proc tree is allways created when loading Speakup.
Is there some convention about who should be the owner and group
of /dev/softsynth and /proc/speakup?

I've been using the device as root so far, but this doesn't allow
me to run SpeechD-Up under a different user (e.g. speechd-up).
Making /dev/softsynth world readable is not an option too as it will
typically contain a complete log of users activity on the system
consoles, so it must be protected.

One more thing to consider is that there might be other interfaces
than SpeechD-Up wanting to access /dev/softsynth and /proc/speakup/ .

So it seems to me that it would be most sensible to create a group
with the name ''speakup'' and make /dev/softsynth and /proc/speakup
readable/writable by this group. Include user speechd-up in group
speakup and run SpeechD-Up with this user.

Should this be the correct approach, who will set the group ownership
for /dev/softsynth and /proc/speakup ? Should Speakup do it? Should it
be some user-space script? Which one?

The ownership change cannot be made in time of installation of
SpeechD-Up as there is not any guarantee that Speakup will already
be installed and that the device won't be deleted/re-created later (in
case of dynamically created device, it will).

I'd like to know your opinion.

Thank you,
Hynek Hanke