Re: host : make install fail if not root

[Bart Veer <bartv at ecoscentric dot com>]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Chavent <paul.chavent@fnac.net> writes:

    Paul> If i do the sequence "./configure make make install" for
    Paul> host side tools, and if i'am not root, the install fail.

    Paul> I think we should not need to be root for succedd the
    Paul> install.

    Paul> So i suggest this patch.

    Paul> I'am not sure it is the good solution.

There is no good solution. Install failures when not running as root
may confuse some users. However if e.g. rawether is not installed suid
root then the synthetic target's ethernet driver will fail to work,
and that will also confuse some users.

Possibly the most appropriate solution would involve something like:

1) if installing as root, just do the chmod's as per the current
   Makefile.am rules.

2) if installing without root privileges, skip the chmod's but output
   a message warning that the install is incomplete. That is better
   than silently producing an install that won't work. However many
   users will ignore any such warnings, so we also need:

3) both rawether and usbchmod should detect whether or not they are
   running with appropriate privileges and, if not, output very clear
   messages about the problem and what should be done to fix it. They
   may already do so, I don't remember.

A patch along those lines should be acceptable. However it would also
likely be big enough to require a copyright assignment, see
http://ecos.sourceware.org/contrib.html

Bart
    
-- 
Bart Veer                                   eCos Configuration Architect
eCosCentric Limited    The eCos experts      http://www.ecoscentric.com/
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