The following reply was made to PR pkg/36473; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Aleksej Saushev <asau@hotbox.ru>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: pkg-manager@netbsd.org, gnats-admin@netbsd.org,
	pkgsrc-bugs@netbsd.org
Subject: Re: pkg/36473: Postpone ${DISTDIR} write permission check till it's really needed
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 21:20:47 +0400

 "OBATA Akio" <obache@netbsd.org> writes:
 
 >  On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 04:10:00 +0900, Aleksej Saushev <asau@hotbox.ru> wrote:
 >  
 >  > When write permission is checked after it's made sure
 >  > distribution file is missing, it becomes possible to use the
 >  > same DISTDIR for private pkgsrc tree in more convenient way.
 >  > It allows building from read-only DISTDIR.
 >  > The regular user is no longer forced to create links into
 >  > "system-wide" DISTDIR nor to loose his efforts just to make
 >  > separate custom installation of ported software.
 >  
 >  Normally, mk/fetc/fetch is never called if all DISTFILES exists in DISTDIR.
 
 Sorry, it contradicts the facts.
 
 > is mk/fetch/fetch called even if all DISTFILE exists?
 
 It is. See:
 
 $ cd /usr/pkgsrc/archivers/unzip/
 $ make
 => Required installed package digest>=20010302: digest-20060826 found
 audit-packages: not found
 ===> Skipping vulnerability checks.
 WARNING: No /pkg-vulnerabilities file found.
 WARNING: To fix run: `download-vulnerability-list'.
 => Fetching unzip552.tgz
 fetch: Cannot write to /usr/pkgsrc/distfiles/unzip-5.52
 *** Error code 1
 
 Stop.
 make: stopped in /usr/pkgsrc/archivers/unzip
 $ stat /usr/pkgsrc/distfiles/unzip-5.52/unzip552.tar.gz >/dev/null && echo ok
 ok
 $ id -u
 1000
 $ stat /usr/pkgsrc/distfiles | cut -d ' ' -f1-6
 5 539392 drwxr-xr-x 41 root wheel
 
 With fresh pkgsrc tree.
 
 Thus, you can't reuse read-only DISTDIR.