Hi all,

I'm at a loss as to how to restore functionality for creating (or using) customised users in ports. For example, using the old method (pkg-install scripts) many ports allowed the user to change the username used for the port.

With the new functionality, if the username isn't found in /usr/ports/UIDs it's rejected, and the port can't use it.

Can anyone explain to me why it would be a bad idea to include the system's passwd and group files in the search? This would allow the ports system to accept any user that already exists, as well as creating the correct code in the plist.

For example; someone wants to install postgresql as username Fred, so s/he sets PG_USER=Fred in /etc/make.conf. Currently this causes an error on build, because Fred is not in /usr/ports/UIDs. Were /etc/master.passwd and /etc/group searched too, that wouldn't cause a problem.

Any obvious oversights?

Chris

http://www.bayofrum.net/~crees/patches/bsd.port.mk-allow-existing-users.diff.txt