Re: packaging from root account

[Mitch Blevins <mblevin@mindspring.com>]

In foo.debian-mentors, you wrote:
> I use root account to debianize a package and to exec all the scripts,
> except lintian. Is it wrong? Or is better to use my ordinary account and
> give it write permission on /usr/local?

I would _not_ package as root.  You can give yourself permissions
in a subdirectory off of /usr/local, or just make a subdir from
your home directory.

<embarrassing antecdote>
I had a buglet in a Makefile of a program I was packaging (as root).
It installed to `pwd`/debian/tmp/..., but also installed to the
root file system.
Since I was root, I didn't get an error on the write to the root
filesystem, and the package built fine.  I didn't see the root fs install
because of the copious amounts of output from the build, and the resulting
package was fine.
After uploading the package, the porters who built on other platforms
were quite surprised to find the build scripts attempting to write
to the root fs.
</embarrassing antecdote>

It is much safer to not be root.  Install libtricks and use
'debuild -rfakeroot' to build your packages.

-Mitch