From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Sep 13 0: 1: 2 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4CDAD37B400 for ; Fri, 13 Sep 2002 00:01:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sccrmhc03.attbi.com (sccrmhc03.attbi.com [204.127.202.63]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC21F43E3B for ; Fri, 13 Sep 2002 00:00:59 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from swear@attbi.com) Received: from localhost.localdomain ([12.242.158.67]) by sccrmhc03.attbi.com (InterMail vM.4.01.03.27 201-229-121-127-20010626) with ESMTP id <20020913070058.DQIQ16614.sccrmhc03.attbi.com@localhost.localdomain> for ; Fri, 13 Sep 2002 07:00:58 +0000 Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.5/8.12.5) with ESMTP id g8D7149b016873 for ; Fri, 13 Sep 2002 00:01:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from swear@attbi.com) Received: (from jojo@localhost) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.5/8.12.5/Submit) id g8D70x3r016870; Fri, 13 Sep 2002 00:00:59 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from swear@attbi.com) X-Authentication-Warning: localhost.localdomain: jojo set sender to swear@attbi.com using -f To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: docs on building & installing ports as non-root From: swear@attbi.com (Gary W. Swearingen) Date: 13 Sep 2002 00:00:59 -0700 Message-ID: <66lm669xw4.m66@localhost.localdomain> Lines: 16 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.1 (Cuyahoga Valley) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I've spent several hours trying to find some article I thought I saw about a month which explained how to build and install from ports without having to run as root in order to have write-access to the /usr/ports and /usr/local trees. Anybody remember seeing such a document lately, or one like it? The handbook says: "You must be the root user to install ports." The ports are nice, but I miss the build-from-tarball days when you could install apps as a normal user. (I know I should be able to figure something out from info in /usr/ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk, but there seems to be too many unknowns.) I don't know how you'd make changes to /var/db/pkg without being root, but maybe it's OK to have other databases owned by other users. I'd be willing to drop protections on /var/db/pkg to be able to run all those scary build & install scripts as non-root.) Thanks. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message