Subject: Re: Building pkgsrc as root -- when & when not?
To: Gan Uesli Starling <alias@starling.us>
From: Julio Merino <jmmv@menta.net>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 02/15/2003 15:33:12
See Packages.txt, section 10.30.



On Sat, 15 Feb 2003 09:11:26 -0500
Gan Uesli Starling <alias@starling.us> 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
> 
> -- 
> 
>   Mistera Sturno - Rarest Extinct Bird
> 
>   <(+)__       Gan Uesli Starling
>    ((__/)=-    Kalamazoo, MI, USA
>     `||`
>      ++        http://starling.us
> 


-- 
Julio M. Merino Vidal <jmmv@menta.net>
The NetBSD Project - http://www.NetBSD.org/