[Haifux] Announcing a new project - fakeroot-ng

[Shachar Shemesh]

gabik wrote:

> Hi Shahar
>
> One question.
> Why one would need such a "fool the process into thinking it is running as
> root"?
> I could think only about some testing scenarios and think there are better
> ways to test than to implement all this functionality.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Gabi
>
>   
I'll give you the example that triggered the development of the original 
fakeroot. When you build a Debian package, you have to be root. This is 
so that the files you create (and go into the package) don't carry your 
userid. Thing is, there is no real reason to be root. No actual root 
privileges are required. Fakeroot is a great tool for allowing you to 
build Debian packages on system where you don't have root, don't want to 
type the root password, or are simply security conscious enough to 
prefer not running as root is not necessary.


Hope this explains it.
Shachar