[pacman-dev] [PATCH] Option to enable running makepkg in root

[Eli Schwartz]

On 1/16/20 10:51 AM, Saul Tigh wrote:
>> Hmm, why is this though? Shouldn't the system which you are
>> bootstrapping from be just as capable of using a delegated build user?
> 
> The bootstrap process has two stages. The first stage is done with a
> delegated build user on the host system and the second stage is done inside
> chroot and has to be done as root user (very similar to chapter six of the
> lfs book). It is while inside this chroot as root user that makepg has to
> compile and build the packages. As I understand it, the bootstrap process
> is quite different than the way arch linux is constructed.

Do you mean there is no user account management set up yet? If it's just
about switching users, util-linux "runuser" can let you run makepkg with
a different user ID.

>> If using this requires patching makepkg anyway, what's the advantage
>> over just using a custom patch for the whole thing?
> 
> I believe it is better to have more options available to the power user. I
> do realize that pacman is mainly designed for archlinux/derivatives which
> might not benefit from this feature but it is good to cover corner cases
> such as this that might benefit other users as well. Personally, I really
> benefit from this feature and would appreciate it if it is included in the
> mainstream version of pacman. This feature does not change the default
> behavior of makepkg/pacman and is only enabled if the ALLOWROOT option is
> enabled.

Wouldn't it make more sense in that case to add a build system switch
e.g. meson -Dmakepkg-asroot=enabled? I'm concerned about including a
codepath that doesn't do anything unless you know it exists and patch
the source to use it.

-- 
Eli Schwartz
Bug Wrangler and Trusted User

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