On Sat, Jun 23, 2001 at 10:40:34AM -0500, Ken Januski wrote: > Thanks to all who've helped me in recompiling my kernel. I used > kernel-package on one debian box and it worked fine. But now I'm about > to do it on another more important box and I'd like to know why I should > not do this as root, as I did on first box, and instead use fakeroot or > something similar. > > I'm sure there are very good reasons. I'd just like an explanation of > the problems created by running it as root and the virtues of not doing > so. Thanks for your patience in answering a basic question. root is inherently dangerous ... you can destroy all the data on your drive (among other fun things) if you don't pay attention :) dpkg-buildpackage wants root rights to create a deb, but otherwise doesn't need special privs. fakeroot uses some "tricks" to allow root-like privs of the sort dpkg-buildpackage wants, but not enough privs to be any more dangerous than your normal login id. Actual compilation of the kernel does not require additional privs. -- Nathan Norman - Staff Engineer | A good plan today is better Micromuse Ltd. | than a perfect plan tomorrow. mailto:nnorman@micromuse.com | -- Patton
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