[development] node_access for not the global user?

[Moshe Weitzman]

Alan Dixon wrote:
> I'm looking for a way to determine if an arbitrary user (i.e, not the
> global or current user) has access to a node. The node_access()
> function in the node.module looks like what I want, except that it
> only applies to the current user. I only actually care if the user can
> view the node.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> I'd thought of redefining the $_GLOBAL['user'] temporarily and then
> running node_access, but I think that might be dangerous (side
> effects?). I could also just copy that node_access function and change
> the references to the global user, but I'm hoping someone's already
> thought through a more elegant solution.
> 

this was a feature of node_access() but it never worked right so it was 
removed in 5. there is an issue on it somewhere.

i would love to see an impersonation API becase we need it for 
programmatically submitting forms, nodes, etc