Re: [HACKERS] make install fails in perl5 ...

neat thing is that I swore that I took out perl5 altogether if the install
wasn't being performed by root...and looking at the logs, it appears I
did, and it got undone:

So, who took the root check out, and when, and why?

Probably me, for a couple of reasons.

- It seemed like the lack of a --with-perl option handles this. I can
see why we might want to verify the --with-perl option and override
it, but what do we do if the user has perl installed in a way that
the non-root postgresql installer can write too? Won't this prevent
a perfectly good installation? For that reason, I prefer requiring
--with-perl and accepting it. After all, we assume all sorts of
configure options are ok and don't override them; why is perl
special in this regard?

- It was also the case that the test involved ${WHOAMI} (I think) but
no such variable was defined in configure. As a result, the test
didn't work anyway and always failed. I pointed this out when I
sent a patch (along with some other changes) and suggested two ways
to go (delete the test or fix ${WHOAMI}) but I guess no one picked
up on it and the test got deleted.

I have no problem with putting it back as long as we can address the
condition in which perl is writable by nonroot users, but it needs to
define the variables before use. Overall, though I feel that the
configure options are there for the user to provide correct
information, and that this test is not appropriate.

Sorry for the confusion.

Cheers,
Brook