Re: Question: wip, git, ssh and permissions

[Ottavio Caruso <ottavio2006-netbsd%yahoo.com@localhost>]

On 25 August 2015 at 14:31, Ottavio Caruso <ottavio2006-netbsd%yahoo.com@localhost> wrote:
> On 25 August 2015 at 14:15, Taylor R Campbell
> <campbell+netbsd-tech-pkg%mumble.net@localhost> wrote:
>>    Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2015 13:57:52 +0100
>>    From: Ottavio Caruso <ottavio2006-netbsd%yahoo.com@localhost>
>>
>>    The pkgscr documentation is confusing and intimidating and scares even
>>    the best-intentioned away.
>>
>>    If the official docs state that the standard place to dump your cvs is
>>    /usr/pkgscr, then they put a dollar sign before the command line, I
>>    might think that I am ok with using the non-root user to manipulate
>>    /usr/pkgscr, but it's obviously not the case.
>>
>> We could change Sec. 1.3 `Terminology' to add that pkgsrc may live
>> anywhere, not just in its traditional location in /usr/pkgsrc.
>>
>> That said, Chapter 2 `Where to get pkgsrc and how to keep it
>> up-to-date' starts by saying:
>>
>>   `Before you download and extract the files, you need to decide where
>>    you want to extract them.  When using pkgsrc as root user, pkgsrc
>>    is usually installed in /usr/pkgsrc.  You are though free to
>>    install the sources and binary packages wherever you want in your
>>    filesystem...'
>>
>> This is just before it explains how to either fetch a pkgsrc tarball
>> by ftp or check pkgsrc out of CVS.
>>
>> Can you suggest how the guide could be made clearer on this?
>
> IMHO it's still not clear enough.
>
> The confusion arises around the concept of using pkgscr as non-root
> user. I might still want to install packages system-wide, but use a
> root account only in the "make install" phase.
>
> Isn't it just better to say: "Unless you want to use the root account
> all the time, install pkgsrc in your home directory" ? Just removing
> the mention of "/usr/pkgscr" would IMHO prevent a lot of trouble.
>
> I would then just either open up the NetBSD wiki to anyone, or at the
> very least those who have a wip account. What could possibly go wrong?
>
> (I know that you can leave comments, but it'd be better to be able to
> rewrite the main article).

EDIT on my previous post. Another solution would be to create a
separate "pkgsrc" user on the system. This way one could put all their
custom variables in their own .rc dotfile, rather than/in addition to
mk.conf.

It would be easier to backup/restore/delete.