autoconf execution needs root permission

[Marslo Jiao]

Hi,

I've heard of my colleague said that, if we use autoconf, then it must need root permission.
Is that right?

Thanks in advanced!

BRs, Marslo Jiao
Sr. Software Engineer, Veritas Technologies Corporation
E-Mail: ***@symantec.com<mailto:***@symantec.com>, Mobil: [phone]
No. 1238, Middle Section of Tianfu Avenue, Hi-tech Zone, Chengdu, China

[Eric Blake]

Post by Marslo Jiao
Hi,
I've heard of my colleague said that, if we use autoconf, then it must need root permission.
Is that right?

No, you are mistaken. Autoconf is designed to be usable without
requiring any special permissions. I'd be interested in more details as
to why you think root access is required, to help squash an incorrect
notion with more facts than just a blanket statement.

There are some configure scripts in the wild that were written where a
particular test will get a correct answer only when configure is run as
root, but such packages are the minority. But such a configure script
can still be generated in user space without root privileges, and the
test in those configure scripts is a result of whoever wrote that
configure.ac, and not due to autoconf proper.

[Marslo Jiao]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your clarify. It's really helpful.
Anything update I will let you know.

BRs, Marslo Jiao

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Blake [mailto:***@redhat.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 09:10 PM
To: Marslo Jiao; ***@gnu.org
Subject: Re: autoconf execution needs root permission

Post by Marslo Jiao
Hi,
I've heard of my colleague said that, if we use autoconf, then it must need root permission.
Is that right?

No, you are mistaken. Autoconf is designed to be usable without requiring any special permissions. I'd be interested in more details as to why you think root access is required, to help squash an incorrect notion with more facts than just a blanket statement.

There are some configure scripts in the wild that were written where a particular test will get a correct answer only when configure is run as root, but such packages are the minority. But such a configure script can still be generated in user space without root privileges, and the test in those configure scripts is a result of whoever wrote that configure.ac, and not due to autoconf proper.