Re: Security patch for gettext-0.11.5/ltmain.sh

[Bruno Haible]

Paul Eggert writes:

> Here's an idea for improving things.  If "make install" detects that
> it lacks write access to a local .libs directory owned by user U, it
> does something like this:
> 
>   echo 'I lack write access to directory foo/bar/.libs, which is owned by U.'
>   echo 'Please enter U's password to complete the installation:'
>   su U -c 'command that needs write access to foo/bar/.libs'
> 
> That way, there is never an instant when a directory is world-writeable.

Nice idea, but this way "make install" becomes an interactive command,
and will break for people who build distros.

IMO libtool should, when relinking, create the final libraries and
executables in a .libs directory in the installation directory, not in
the build directory. This way the permission problem would go away
entirely.

Bruno