# Testing port as non-root?



## forkandwait (Jun 12, 2012)

Is there a canonical way to develop and test a new port NOT running as root?

For hopefully obvious reasons, I would like to get the port working before installing it etc as root.

Thanks!


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## kpa (Jun 12, 2012)

Set WRKDIRPREFIX and DISTDIR to directories writable by your normal user account, those will allow you to fetch and build the port. You can also set PREFIX to your own directory if you want to test installing the port.


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