Re: ownership/permissions of cpio initrd

[Jeffrey Hundstad <jeffrey.hundstad@mnsu.edu>]

You can also use fakeroot(1).

Start fakeroot.
Change all of your permissions as you see fit.
make your cpio
exit fakeroot.



Horst H. von Brand wrote:
> Marty Leisner <linux@rochester.rr.com> wrote:
>   
>> I'm working on an embedded system with the 2.6 kernel -- cpio
>> initrd was a new feature I'm looking at (and very welcome).
>>
>> The major advantage I see is you don't have MAKE a filesystem
>> on the build host (doing cross development).  So you don't have
>> to be root.
>>     
>
>   
>> But its "useful" to change permissions/ownership of the initrd
>> files at times...
>>     
>
>   
>> Since a cpio is just a userspace created string of bits, I suppose
>> you can apply a set of ownership/permissions to files IN the archive
>> by playing with the bits...
>>     
>
> The easy way out is to unpack the initrd, fix permissions, and repack. That
> requires root, though (it creates devices).
>
>   
>> Does such a tool exist?  Comments?  Seems very useful in order to
>> avoid being root...
>>     
>
> I'd use sudo(1) + specially cooked commands to unpack/pack an initrd. It is
> a bit more work, but gives you extra flexibility (i.e., not just futzing
> around with permissions, can also add/replace/edit/rename/delete files, ...
> using bog standard tools).
>