Re: open issue of *OWN/*GRP variables and installation to DESTDIR

[Klaus Heinz <k.heinz%janacht.kh-22.de@localhost>]

Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:

> I would do it the very same way for all the user variables. The question
> remains if we really need 100 different user variables which essentially
> ends up as the same user in the end.

If we keep the variables, do we really have to redefine them to the
unpriviledged user when using DESTDIR mode?

As I see it, the problem is that during a DESTDIR installation, there 
is no way for privileged commands (chmod/chown) to be run and we either
have to defer those commands to installation time or use "safe"
parameters (ie, the unpriviledged user/group) for those commands.
At the moment, pkgsrc uses the latter solution by redefining the
parameters (the *OWN/*GRP variables).
If all the packages used SPECIAL_PERMS/REQD_FILES_PERMS we would not
have to redefine the variables but could use them just as they were
meant to be used: define the ownership to be used at runtime.

Another way to use ownership information is for configuration of the
package (eg, as which user a daemon should run) and this information
gets either put into configuration files (Apache httpd.conf) or
hard-coded into the binary programs (qmail), so this can be done without
a problem as an unpriviledged user.

So, shouldn't it be sufficient to sweep through pkgsrc and convert all
uses of chown/chmod/chgrp to SPECIAL_PERMS? What am I missing?

ciao
     Klaus