disable creating per-user gnome configuration directory?

["Jeremy C. Reed" <reed reedmedia net>]

Is there any environment variable to define or other way to disable the
the attempted creation of a per-user gnome configuration directory?

I recently updated from gnome-vfs2-2.8.3nb1 to gnome-vfs2-2.10.0 and
libgnome-2.8.0nb1 to libgnome-2.10.0 (Pkgsrc packages) and now firefox
won't install in my chrooted package build environment (which does not
have a /root).

(Gecko:16753): libgnomevfs-WARNING **: Unable to create ~/.gnome2
directory: No such file or directory
Could not create per-user gnome configuration directory `/root/.gnome2/':
No such file or directory

cd /usr/lib/firefox &&  /usr/bin/env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=.
HOME=/tmp/pkgsrc/www/firefox/work.montecristo/mozilla  ./firefox-bin
-register

(Gecko:16911): libgnomevfs-WARNING **: Unable to create ~/.gnome2
directory: No such file or directory
 such file or directory
Could not create per-user gnome configuration directory `/root/.gnome2/':
No such file or directory
*** Error code 1

Of course, the work-around is easy: mkdir /root.

But why?

And where is this firefox-bin -register option documented? (I know this is
a mozilla question, but I thought I would ask here.)

What is the purpose of creating this per-user configuration directory on
the package build machine? (or in my case in the /root directory which
never runs any X software and I assume no gnome-related programs??)

What can I do to disable creating this per-user configuration directory on
the package build machine?

I searched for some answers about this, but couldn't find related
documentation. I started looking at libgnome/gnome-init.c code too.

Thank you,

 Jeremy C. Reed

 	  	 	 Media Relations and Publishing Services
	  	 	 http://www.reedmedia.net/