RE: [gnet-dev] Letting gnet-1.1.8 and gnet-2.0.1RPM packages coexist

[<bas mevissen hetnet nl>]

From:	"martyn 2 russell bt com" <martyn 2 russell bt com>
Sent:	Tuesday, April 29, 2003 9:37 AM
To:	"dhelder umich edu" <dhelder umich edu>, "bas basmevissen nl" <bas basmevissen nl>
Cc:	"gnet-dev gnetlibrary org" <gnet-dev gnetlibrary org>
Subject:	RE: [gnet-dev] Letting gnet-1.1.8 and gnet-2.0.1RPM packages coexist

>> Non-superusers should be able to compile and install GNet.  
>> The tarball
>> was built using 'make dist' with the standard automake 
>> Makefile.  I don't
>> think it does anything special with permissions.  The install script
>> should set permissions correctly.
> 
> Non-superusers should be able to compile it. They should not be able to
> install it.  Most packages require root to install because they put files in
> /usr and other places which require root access to write.

AFAIK, tarballs of this kind are always packed with uid,gid=0,0. If a mortal user tries to unpack it, it silently uses the uid,gid from the user. If a tarball is extracted by root, then the uid,gid within the tarball is used.

One good example of how it should NOT be done is the linux kernel: numerous different uid,gid are used :-)

Regards,

Bas.