Macports group instead of macports user?

[Joshua Root]

On 2011-7-21 23:17 , Russell Jones wrote:
> ________________________________________
> From: Joshua Root [jmr at macports.org]
> Sent: 19 July 2011 17:48
> To: Russell Jones
> Cc: MacPorts Users
> Subject: Re: Macports group instead of macports user?
> 
> On 28164-7-23 05:59 , Russell Jones wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> My understanding is that Macports 2.0 will allow (require?) one to run the macports system as a special macports user. Would it be possible to run it as any member of a macports group? This would be useful to us if, for instance, we want to work on porting a program with a user and allow them to develop and test a Portfile, but don't want to give them full sysadmin rights.
> 
> The only change to this stuff in 2.0 is that we have privilege dropping
> turned on in macports.conf.default and create a user at install time to
> use with it. You can already set macportsuser to whatever (existent)
> user you like in 1.9.
> 
> You can also set whatever ownership you like on the prefix. If a user
> has sufficient privileges to write to files in the prefix, they don't
> have to use sudo to install ports. The macportsuser setting is only used
> when port is started as root. (Can't drop privileges you don't have.)
> 
> - Josh
> ----
> 
> Ah, I see. That's good to hear. When building packages under linux, root (or fakeroot) privileges are sometimes required. I thought there might be similar issues with building source under MacPorts.

Oh I'm sure there are. Ports that must do something as root can set
'<target>.asroot yes' and you won't be able to run that target as a
non-root user. You also might have to do some steps manually, such as
creating users, if you install without root and a port needs the user at
runtime.

- Josh