[Haifux] Announcing a new project - fakeroot-ng

[gabik]

Hi


Would not it be more correct to fix the system, that requires you to be root
if this is not really required, to not require a root?
I mean - this is the where the "real bug" is. 
So would not it be smarter to fix the bug instead of inventing complex ways
to overcome it?

Thank you,

Gabi




-----Original Message-----
From: Shachar Shemesh [mailto:shachar at shemesh.biz] 
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 7:54 PM
To: gabik
Cc: 'Haifa Linux Club'
Subject: Re: [Haifux] Announcing a new project - fakeroot-ng

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