Bug#337582: [Pbuilder-maint] Bug#337582: automatic creation of pbuilder user would be helpful

[Junichi Uekawa]

Hi,

> > > I may be missing some technical limitations of this that weren't ovious
> > > in the documentation, but it seems to me that the pbuilder Debian
> > > package could automatically create a pbuilder user, in a manner similar
> > > to many other programs, rather than relying on the user to do so
> > > themselves.
> > 
> > What user does pbuilder require that it doesn't create?
> 
> It doesn't *require* one, but according to section 6. of the User's
> Manual:
> 
>    "pbuilder requires full root privilege when it is satisfying the
>    build-dependencies, but most packages do not need root privilege, or
>    fail to build when they are root. pbuilder  can create a user which
>    is only used inside pbuilder  and use that user id when building, and
>    use the fakeroot command when root privilege is required."
> 
> Further, it is generally best practices to resort to full root
> privileges only when aboslutely necessary, and to work with user
> privileges whenever possible.
> 
> I see two obvious ways to make such desirable behavior the default:
> 
> 1) Automatically create a pbuilder user (as already suggested
> in /etc/pbuilderrc), as originally suggested in this bug report.

Hmm... pbuilder user is used inside the chroot, and nothing 
to do with what happens outside; so that's one thing you 
might have misunderstood from my text.

The reason for not making user 'pbuilder' with userid 1234 per
default is that 

1. the user might already be used outside the chroot

2. running pbuilder under user privilege will require fakeroot 
which does not always work.


However, I think making fakeroot default might be a good idea
since fakeroot is already prolific.


regards,
	junichi