Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 07:14:54 -0500 From: "Frank J. Laszlo" <laszlof@vonostingroup.com> To: Robert Backhaus <robbak@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Port installation without root access Message-ID: <43F1C9BE.8040507@vonostingroup.com> In-Reply-To: <d4499580602131944p4a8ee253l322e8fa0f8a06ce@mail.gmail.com> References: <43F103B4.6080601@vonostingroup.com> <1386.201.155.124.120.1139882008.squirrel@webmail.i13i.com> <43F1498F.3040107@vonostingroup.com> <d4499580602131944p4a8ee253l322e8fa0f8a06ce@mail.gmail.com>
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Robert Backhaus wrote: > On 2/14/06, Frank J. Laszlo <laszlof@vonostingroup.com> wrote: > >> chris@i13i.com wrote: >> >>>> This has been on my TODO list for quite some time now, and I havent >>>> really gotten around to actually implementing it. As it stands right >>>> now, I have a script that allows normal users to build/install ports >>>> with some environment trickery and a few hacks. I'd like to integrate >>>> this into the ports system. so it would be as simple as a user >>>> specifying a particular variable in their environment, NOROOT_BUILD, or >>>> something along those lines, as well as other user specified variables >>>> to allow full installation without root access. >>>> Normal users would be able to maintain their own package database, >>>> and their own upgrades locally. Obviously we do not want to give normal >>>> users access to ALL the ports, so i propose adding functionality to >>>> allow the system admin to customize what the normal users have access >>>> to. Such as a config file that says which ports they can and cannot >>>> install, or whether to allow normal user installations at all. >>>> At this point im just probing for interest, and hoping to recruit a >>>> couple port guru's to give me a hand with some of the details. :) >>>> >>>> Regards, >>>> Frank >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> freebsd-ports@freebsd.org mailing list >>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-ports >>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-ports-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> Hello, >>> If you are going to allow users to install packages you mind as well give >>> them root or admin privileges i dont see the point in letting users able >>> to install [ackages on a machine which has more then one user on it but i >>> am just commenting as most users normally need to install a couple things >>> mostly irc crap like eggdrops or bnc's i have never had a email from a >>> customer saying please install KDE for me >>> >>> >> That is very true.. but you have to remember. not all users are going to >> be remote. There are other uses for freebsd than a web or a shell server. >> >> Regards, >> Frank >> _______________________________________________ >> freebsd-ports@freebsd.org mailing list >> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-ports >> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-ports-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >> >> > It does make sense to install ports into, say, ~/local . I can see > three things that you need: Wrtie access to the distfiles directory, > (if you need to fetch), PREFIX set, and MAKEOBJDIR set to somewhere > spacious and writeable. > > My limited experience is that this works, at least for the trivial > ports for which user installation makes sense. Unless - Do ports > recognise libraries/dependencies installed to /usr/local if PREFIX is > altered? > Yes, they do. thanks to ldconfig. But there are more things to workaround. Such as PKG_DBDIR (remember I said the user would maintain their own package database) mtree also requires root when being called from ports. So we need to set NO_MTREE. And user defined make arguments. each user could have their own custom make.conf, thanks to __MAKE_CONF. I also ran into a little problem with ranlib.. Usually before ranlib is run, the file is read only. Only root is able to write to a file with no write flag set. This wouldnt be a problem if the library was installed before ranlib is run, but that sometimes isnt the case. the user could also maintain their own linker hints file. Regards, Frank
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