One more proof that Debian rocks

fakeroot. Enough said.

It's especially cool for running closed-source installers that you simply can't trust, but insist on running as root anyway.

Example usage:

cky@dandelion:~$ cd ~setup
cky@dandelion:/home/setup$ sudo -H -u setup -s
setup@dandelion:~$ gunzip -c ~cky/downloads/VMware-workstation-4.5.2-8848.tar.gz | pax -r
setup@dandelion:~$ fakeroot /bin/bash --login
root@dandelion:~# cd vmware-distrib
root@dandelion:~/vmware-distrib# ./vmware-install.pl

When done, I tar up all the files installed in the sandbox before I exit the fakeroot environment, check that all the permissions are to my liking, and unpack it back using the real root user.

Note that ‘setup’ is a completely unprivileged user. All I did was give it access to /etc/vmware, /usr/local/stow/vmware-4.5.2 (where I'm installing the beastie), and /etc/init.d/vmwave (because the installer insists so).

Couldn't be simpler or safer. :-)