>> it because traditional Unix terminal handling is also a disaster
>> area, and I don't see a good solution.
>> --[[smcv]]
+
+>>> After reading this, appreciating your effort writing it, and then
+>>> ignoring it for a while, I think our easiest option might be to take
+>>> a dependency on sudo. It's ubiquitous-ish, and where it's not
+>>> already present the dependency feels more "suggested" than
+>>> "required": ikiwiki is plenty useful for many/most uses without a working
+>>> `ikiwiki-mass-rebuild` (as I can vouch). A slightly more annoying
+>>> and thorough option might be to make the run-as-user command
+>>> configurable, with some strong suggestions and warnings. Thoughts?
+>>> --[[schmonz]]
+
+>>>> Here's what I'm experimenting with now:
+>>>>
+>>>> my $ret=system("sudo", "-n", "-s", "-u", $user, "/bin/sh", "-c", "--", "$0", "--nonglobal", @ARGV);
+>>>>
+>>>> --[[schmonz]]
+
+>>>>> [[!template id=gitbranch branch=schmonz/sudo-mass-rebuild author="[[schmonz]]"]]
+>>>>> Works well for me on macOS and NetBSD. Does it look right? Can
+>>>>> someone vouch that there is indeed no functional change on Debian?
+>>>>> --[[schmonz]]