--with-macports-user

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jul 20, 2009, at 20:35, Bryan Blackburn wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 07:24:50PM -0500, Ryan Schmidt said:
>
>> My non-root MacPorts 1.7.1 install was configured with
>>
>> --with-install-user=rschmidt
>> --with-install-group=admin
>>
>> I don't use "sudo" for most operations. This gives me some assurance
>> that arbitrary things on my hard drive are not being modified. I only
>> use sudo to install ports that need root access, like those that have
>> startup scripts, like apache2 or mysql5-server.
>>
>> MacPorts trunk has a new --with-macports-user option. How am I meant
>> to configure MacPorts trunk now? What should I specify for the
>> macports-user? rschmidt? root? some new user I create? Will I need to
>> change my habits about when I use sudo?
>
> On trunk, for non-root installs, the --with-no-root-privileges  
> option should
> automatically set the install user and group to your current  
> settings (it
> uses id).

What else does --with-no-root-privileges do? The help only says it  
will "Specify that MacPorts should be installed in your home  
directory". I do not want MacPorts in my home directory; I want it  
where I indicate with --prefix. The name of the option implies that  
it should be used by someone who does not have root privileges, or  
who does not want MacPorts to use root privileges. I have and do want  
MacPorts to use root privileges if necessary, but for most ports it  
is not necessary. Should I use the --with-no-root-privileges option?

> As for --with-macports-user, you'll want to set that to the same
> user when doing non-root, as otherwise it defaults to root currently
> (apparently due to the functionality having bugs still [1]).  In  
> the future
> this would be the user who would actually own the build as it happens

And who will that be? My user id, root, or some new user?

> then
> port would only set to root for the actual install.
>
> Bryan
>
> [1] - <http://trac.macports.org/browser/trunk/base/aclocal.m4#L358>

I see the comment there reads "dropping root privs is still buggy".  
In what way?