From 088ed806aea61e4afc60bb54c97051cebf149277 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: bbedward <bbedward@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2026 18:19:17 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] core: allow RO commands to run as root

---
 core/cmd/dms/main.go        |  2 +-
 core/cmd/dms/main_distro.go |  2 +-
 core/cmd/dms/utils.go       | 16 ++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/core/cmd/dms/main.go b/core/cmd/dms/main.go
index aa1bcb54..37320836 100644
--- a/core/cmd/dms/main.go
+++ b/core/cmd/dms/main.go
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ func init() {
 func main() {
 	clipboard.MaybeServeAndExit()
 
-	if os.Geteuid() == 0 {
+	if os.Geteuid() == 0 && !isReadOnlyCommand(os.Args) {
 		log.Fatal("This program should not be run as root. Exiting.")
 	}
 
diff --git a/core/cmd/dms/main_distro.go b/core/cmd/dms/main_distro.go
index dcde6e8e..1cb6dd16 100644
--- a/core/cmd/dms/main_distro.go
+++ b/core/cmd/dms/main_distro.go
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ func init() {
 func main() {
 	clipboard.MaybeServeAndExit()
 
-	if os.Geteuid() == 0 {
+	if os.Geteuid() == 0 && !isReadOnlyCommand(os.Args) {
 		log.Fatal("This program should not be run as root. Exiting.")
 	}
 
diff --git a/core/cmd/dms/utils.go b/core/cmd/dms/utils.go
index d5b3b046..9459e41c 100644
--- a/core/cmd/dms/utils.go
+++ b/core/cmd/dms/utils.go
@@ -7,6 +7,22 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 )
 
+// isReadOnlyCommand returns true if the CLI args indicate a command that is
+// safe to run as root (e.g. shell completion, help).
+func isReadOnlyCommand(args []string) bool {
+	for _, arg := range args[1:] {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(arg, "-") {
+			continue
+		}
+		switch arg {
+		case "completion", "help", "__complete":
+			return true
+		}
+		return false
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
 func isArchPackageInstalled(packageName string) bool {
 	cmd := exec.Command("pacman", "-Q", packageName)
 	err := cmd.Run()