Subject: RE: Has anyone tried building -current as non-root from scratch
To: Andrew van der Stock <ajv@greebo.net>
From: Frederick Bruckman <fb@enteract.com>
List: current-users
Date: 03/25/2001 02:46:58
On Sun, 25 Mar 2001, Andrew van der Stock wrote:

> +          or whatever takes your fancy. If building as a normal user,
> +          the normal user should have adequate permissions for this
> +          directory.
> +
> +          chown -R user <directory>
> +          chmod -R u=rwX,go=rX <directory>

A non-privileged user can't build a distribution properly, because he
can't install suid executables, for one.

> +          This allows non-root users to build the tree. It is also
> +          suggested that you set DESTDIR in /etc/mk.conf if you are
> +          regularly building -current.

And then what? DESTDIR is used for staging releases (for "make
release"). If you complete a "make build" with DESTDIR set you haven't
updated anything in your path. If you intend to offer a non-intrusive
build as an option, you need to at least provide the missing pieces.
(I believe there are several open PR's on this subject.)

You should also know that the recommended way to update has always
been to "make build" into /. That's why it's the default.


Frederick