lighttpd fails to install without root privileges

[blaffablaffa@…]

This happens even with "startupitem_install no". Incidentally this prevents installing git too.

[mf2k (Frank Schima)]

In the future, please fill in the Port field and Cc the port maintainers (port info --maintainers lighttpd), if any.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Could you please attach the main.log file showing what happens with lighttpd?

Please file a separate ticket about git.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Wait, I see what you mean, lighttpd was recently added as a dependency of git in r141882. Nevermind.

[blaffablaffa@…]

lighttpd main.log

[kenny@…]

Cc Me!

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Has duplicate #49832.

[posita (Matt Bogosian)]

From #49832:

I don't see why anyone would want to install a web server non-root.

I think this is shortsighted. Software use and development is a diverse human enterprise. Creative people often find beneficial uses for things that weren't originally contemplated by their designers.

If you have a use case for this please let me know.

Installing applications as non-root, including web servers, can be useful for development, testing, in shared environments, and a whole host of situations not easily covered here.

The following is after a 10 second web search:

• ​http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEQTP_7.0.0/com.ibm.websphere.installation.base.doc/info/aes/ae/cins_nonroot.html
• ​https://serverfault.com/questions/135565/install-webserver-without-root-access
• ​http://tnovelli.net/blog/blog.2011-08-27.node-npm-user-install.html
• ​http://blog.tlensing.org/2010/04/12/installing-mercurial-on-a-shared-web-server-without-root-access-hosteurope/
• ​https://www.bugzilla.org/docs/2.22/html/nonroot.html

FWIW, I have been able to install Apache into a user prefix MacPorts environment. (Admittedly, I have not tried this recently.) Perhaps you can explain why lighttpd requires root, when Apache and WebSphere do not?

[posita (Matt Bogosian)]

At the very least, git should not require root to install. By virtue of its newfound dependency on lighttpd, it now does. (See #49833 for that issue.)

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Has anyone tried just removing the install.asroot yes line? That was added in r58524 with the rather confusing message "fix non-root installations" (it actually has the effect of disallowing installation without root privileges). I don't know of any reason why lighttpd would need this for only the install phase, which is handled entirely by MacPorts base and consists of either creating an archive from the destroot or moving a downloaded archive into place, and then updating the registry.