samba - Aug 2000 - samba as non-root

Is there any way to run samba as a non-root user? I
have built it successfully but when I try to start it
I get the following error:

"Must have effective user id of zero to run"

Thanks

Cal

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[Calixto Melean <cmelean@yahoo.com>]
> Is there any way to run samba as a non-root user?
I don't believe so.  There are a lot of places within Samba where it
needs root privileges for one reason or another.  Some of these (maybe
all) could be eliminated -- you can run it from inetd to avoid having
to bind to a low port, or you can run encrypted passwords to avoid
having to read the system shadow file -- but there are other places
where it *thinks* it needs root access (i.e. to read/write the
smbpasswd file) where you could convince it otherwise but only by
patching the source.

Like all good daemons, Samba drops privileges at every opportunity, but
I do understand the desire to run as non-root from the get-go....

Peter