Permission denied -- Lion Server?

[Craig Treleaven]

At 8:27 PM -0500 8/7/12, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>On Aug 7, 2012, at 20:19, Craig Treleaven <ctreleaven at cogeco.ca> wrote:
>
>>  A (potential) user is trying to help with testing a portfile I've 
>>developed, mythtv-core.25, but we're having a problem.  Originally, 
>>I've emailed him the Portfile and related support files.  He is 
>>running Lion Server with the latest MacPorts installed.  He was 
>>able to install qt4-mac +mysql (a dependency).  When he attempts to 
>>install Myth, all of Myth's dependencies ARE installed but then it 
>>aborts with the following error:
>>
>>  At 7:21 PM -0500 8/6/12, Nelson M Sanchez <Nelson M. Sanchez> wrote:
>>>  DEBUG: Attempting ln -sf 
>>>/opt/local/var/macports/build/_Users_Nelson_mythtv-core.25-v20120731/mythtv-core.25/work 
>>>/Users/Nelson/mythtv-core.25-v20120731/work
>>>  DEBUG: changing euid/egid - current euid: 0 - current egid: 0
>>>  DEBUG: egid changed to: 505
>>>  DEBUG: euid changed to: 502
>>>  DEBUG: could not read 
>>>"/Users/Nelson/mythtv-core.25-v20120731/Portfile": permission 
>>>denied
>>>     while executing
>>>  "file mtime ${portpath}/Portfile"
>>>     (procedure "open_statefile" line 47)
>>>     invoked from within
>>>  "open_statefile"
>>>     (procedure "check_variants" line 29)
>>>     invoked from within
>>>  "check_variants activate"
>>>     invoked from within
>>>  "$workername eval check_variants $target"
>>>     (procedure "mportexec" line 7)
>>>     invoked from within
>>>  "mportexec $workername $target"
>>>  Error: Unable to execute port: could not read 
>>>"/Users/Nelson/mythtv-core.25-v20120731/Portfile": permission 
>>>denied
>>
>>  Earlier, he was connecting to this machine via Apple Remote 
>>Desktop and I thought perhaps that was creating the permissions 
>>problem.  He is now working directly on the box so I think that was 
>>a red herring.
>>
>>  Could someone help us figure out was is going wrong?
>
>MacPorts was modified some time ago to drop privileges to an 
>unprivileged user (the "macports" user). While this change is nice 
>for ensuring that ports don't go modifying files on your system that 
>they're not authorized to modify, it throws a kind into our 
>instructions for how to install from random Portfiles located 
>anywhere on your disk, since the "macports" user probably won't have 
>permission to read files in your home directory.

OK, but:
1) MacPorts already read the Portfile to process the dependencies?!?
2) I should have included that permissions seem to allow Everyone to read:

At 7:21 PM -0500 8/6/12, Nelson M Sanchez <Nelson M. Sanchez> wrote:
>homeserver:mythtv-core.25-v20120731 Nelson$ ls -al
>total 40
>drwx------@  5 Nelson  staff                        170 Aug  6 19:16 .
>drwxr-xr-x+ 35 Nelson  staff                       1190 Aug  6 19:16 ..
>-rw-r--r--@  1 Nelson  com.apple.local.ard_admin  13157 Aug  5 09:28 Portfile
>drwxr-xr-x@ 13 Nelson  com.apple.local.ard_admin    442 Aug  6 19:16 files
>lrwxr-xr-x   1 root    staff                         88 Aug  6 19:16 
>work -> 
>/opt/local/var/macports/build/_Users_Nelson_mythtv-core.25-v20120731/mythtv-core.25/work

3) I believe the error indicates that MacPorts can't open its own 
statefile in the work directory, no?

Craig