When logged in as user root, making a single mistake can damage or destroy a system. Therefore, we recommend building the packages as an unprivileged user. You could use your own user name, but to make it easier to set up a clean work environment, create a new user called clfs as a member of a new group (also named clfs) and use this user during the installation process. As root, issue the following commands to add the new user:
groupadd clfs useradd -s /bin/bash -g clfs -m -k /dev/null clfs
The meaning of the command line options:
This makes bash the default shell for user clfs.
This option adds user clfs to group clfs.
This creates a home directory for clfs.
This parameter prevents possible copying of files from a skeleton directory (default is /etc/skel) by changing the input location to the special null device.
This is the actual name for the created group and user.
To log in as clfs (as opposed to switching to user clfs when logged in as root, which does not require the clfs user to have a password), give clfs a password:
passwd clfs
Grant clfs full access to $CLFS/cross-tools and $CLFS/tools by making clfs the directorys' owner:
chown -v clfs $CLFS/tools chown -v clfs $CLFS/cross-tools
If a separate working directory was created as suggested, give user clfs ownership of this directory:
chown -v clfs $CLFS/sources
Next, login as user clfs. This can be done via a virtual console, through a display manager, or with the following substitute user command:
su - clfs
The “-” instructs su to start a login shell as opposed to a non-login shell. The difference between these two types of shells can be found in detail in bash(1) and info bash.