While daydreaming during a boring meeting, I was thinking how nice it would be to have a Linux box at work (currently I have only a Win2k machine). However, I'm so used to having root that if I got a Linux machine at work, I'd probably only have normal user access.
In the past, on the various Unix systems I've used where I don't have root, but want a package installed, I usually just get the source, compile and install in my home directory. That's fine for small packages, but it's just too much work if the package has a lot of dependancies or needs a makefile tweaked, etc. Then I thought it wouldn't be too hard (in theory <grin>) to have per-user access to the package tool (portage in gentoo's case). The user would have his own set of package accounting data; it wouldn't affect the system-wide database. For example, say I want to install package slrn, which has a dependancy on the slang package. I don't have admin access, and my sysadmin doesn't want it installed. It would be nice if I could, however, do an "emerge slrn" and have portage download, build and install slrn and slang all in my home directory. Assuming I have the disk space, I could do this manually anyway. But, obviously, portage makes it easier. Plus, say slang was already installed at the system level, it would be cool if the "per-user" version of the package tool recognized that. This would also be nice for testing new or development versions of packages. You could do a local install (to a test account, for example) and play with the software without affecting the integrity of the rest of the system. I really have a need for such a feature, but someone else might. I just thought I'd throw the idea out there... maybe someone will be inspired :) Matt -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
