Ben --
...and then Ben Roberts said...
% I am trying to install mutt 1.2.5 unprivileged (this server has mutt 1.0pre3us
Well, 1.0pre3 is good to have.
% on it, and doesn't support some features I'd like) but I cannot get around the
% mutt_dotlock problems. I can't find anything that tells me what this does, why
% it has to be from group mail, and how I can work around using it. I tried to
mutt_dotlock is a little program that handles the file locking in the
mail spool directory (/var/spool/mail or wherever). Typically the spool
dir is owned by root.mail and cannot be written by world, so anything
that might write in there (like a dotlocking program, which locks some
file foo by creating foo.lock next to it) must be privileged.
By putting the special code in this little program instead of in the big
mutt sources, a wary sysadmin can quickly and easily review the code and
see that it's safe to make privileged. As an added bonus, anyone can
install any version of mutt that he wishes, since mutt does *not* require
any special permissions.
% add --disable-external_dotlock to the configure run, but make still attempts to
% build the file and set the permissions and group on it. How do I bypass this
% in the build?
Don't worry about it; you can use the privileged one in /usr/local/bin
(or wherever) instead of the new one, since nothing has changed in that
code in forever. The make will go just fine (mutt_dotlock will compile),
and the install will just complain that it can't set the permissions.
Once you've run the install, wipe out the useless mutt_dotlock from the
tree where mutt got installed (at least, I'm pretty sure it will copy it
there first and then complain about the perms) and your path will be
clean to find the real one.
%
% --
%
% Ben Roberts, Class of 2001 (1st of millenium), founding member of MBLUG
%
% "If your motherboard smells like carcinogens it's time to get a new
% motherboard."
% -- Ben Roberts, refering to his SPARC
Tee hee. I like this, and I've been there before :-)
:-D
--
David T-G * It's easier to fight for one's principles
(play) [EMAIL PROTECTED] * than to live up to them. -- fortune cookie
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The "new millennium" starts at the beginning of 2001. There was no year 0.
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