Gan Uesli Starling wrote:
> I got some helpful security advice from Alistair Crooks
> that it is no longer recommended to build packages as
> root. I have been following this advice.
> 
> But... Some days ago I decided to do 'make upgrade' on
> /usr/pkgsrc/lang/perl58 for a slow laptop with lots and
> lots of other packages dependent on Perl. I'll bet that
> it has asked for my root passwd no less than fifty times.
> Every time it stops and waits. I will not run all night
> that way. And the machine is pretty much tied up in
> between times. Kind of a hassle, you know?
> 
> I greatly miss being able to just enter 'make && make install'
> then forget about the whole business until it was done.
> 
> So... Is there a rule-of-thumb or a list of what packages
> one ought to avoid building as root? Might I have been
> okay to do it for Perl? Can I just trust the warnings
> about security holes on the software webpage or some such
> method for choosing when to not build as root?
> 
> Or should I just bite the bullet and resign myself to
> entering my password many, many times? I might have just
> left it at Perl 5.6 for all this trouble.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Gan

Maybe an Expect wrapper to give the root password?

ciao!

leam