[MacPorts] #73369: inetutils: Install fails with non-root installation because it can't find grcp

[MacPorts]

#73369: inetutils: Install fails with non-root installation because it can't find
grcp
--------------------------+-------------------------
  Reporter:  AgilentGCMS  |      Owner:  Schamschula
      Type:  defect       |     Status:  assigned
  Priority:  Normal       |  Milestone:
 Component:  ports        |    Version:  2.11.6
Resolution:               |   Keywords:
      Port:  inetutils    |
--------------------------+-------------------------

Comment (by ryandesign):

 Replying to [comment:13 Marius Schamschula <mschamschula@…>]:
 > add ui_msg regarding non-root installs

 Two suggestions about that. First, use `notes` instead of manually
 printing messages with `ui_msg`. Second, reword the message to no longer
 say "be sure to install inetutils as root" because that's not really an
 easy thing for a user to do. You're instructing the user to uninstall
 MacPorts and all ports and reinstall MacPorts as root, which is extremely
 invasive and may not be something the user is even able to do if they
 don't have administrator privileges. (Users don't tend to go to the
 trouble to install MacPorts without root privileges and endure building
 all ports from source unless they have a good reason.) Instead, the
 message might just explain to the user that because they've installed
 MacPorts without root privileges, the following executables are not
 installed. And then fix the port so that it can actually be installed
 without root.

 And in fact I see I was wrong [comment:9 above] about the specific cause:
 the Portfile does already know to make symlinks only to those executables
 that were installed:

 {{{#!tcl
         xinstall -m 755 -d ${destroot}${prefix}/libexec/gnubin
         foreach binary [glob -tails -directory ${destroot}${prefix}/bin
 g*] {
             ln -s ${prefix}/bin/${binary}
 ${destroot}${prefix}/libexec/gnubin/[string range $binary 1 end]
         }
 }}}

 However it also changes persmissions on three executables without first
 verifying that those executables were installed; that's the problem:

 {{{#!tcl
         file attributes ${destroot}${prefix}/bin/grcp -permissions +s
         file attributes ${destroot}${prefix}/bin/grlogin -permissions +s
         file attributes ${destroot}${prefix}/bin/grsh -permissions +s
 }}}

 I also wonder why the port wants to change the permissions of these three
 executables. `+s` means add the setuid bit. Shouldn't the Makefile have
 set that already? Maybe these three lines can simply be removed.

 And we saw that the build skipped six executables because they wanted
 setuid. So why does the Portfile only try to deal with three of them?

 Looking on my system for a root MacPorts installation, all six of the
 executables were installed with the setuid bit set (lines beginning with
 `-rws`):

 {{{
 % port -qv installed inetutils
   inetutils @2.6_1+client (active) requested_variants='' platform='darwin
 21' archs='x86_64' date='2025-08-19T17:52:32-0500'
 % port -q contents inetutils | xargs ls -ld | grep '^-.*/bin/'
 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  admin   90848 Aug 19 17:52
 /opt/local/bin/gdnsdomainname
 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  admin  176600 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/gftp
 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  admin   92136 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/glogger
 -rwsr-xr-x  1 root  admin   96512 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/gping
 -rwsr-xr-x  1 root  admin   94616 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/gping6
 -rwsr-sr-x  1 root  admin   94200 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/grcp
 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  admin   91224 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/grexec
 -rwsr-sr-x  1 root  admin   92840 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/grlogin
 -rwsr-sr-x  1 root  admin   91600 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/grsh
 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  admin   94488 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/gtalk
 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  admin  172808 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/gtelnet
 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  admin   95976 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/gtftp
 -rwsr-xr-x  1 root  admin   94360 Aug 19 17:52 /opt/local/bin/gtraceroute
 }}}

 This supports the idea that the three `file attributes` lines in the
 Portfile are unnecessary and removing them should fix this bug.

 The lines [changeset:6ca221fb4835dfbf0867670e7508cada03fe9467/macports-
 ports were added] in 2018 when the port was at version 1.9.4. The commit
 message doesn't say why, and checking the 1.9.4 source code, the Makefile
 did already contain the code to set the setuid bit of rcp, rsh, rlogin,
 and traceroute.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/73369#comment:15>
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