portsnap fails if not root

[Frank Leonhardt]

Is there any reason why portsnap has to run as root? If you specify alternative ports dir and db dir using -p and - d, it should download and unpack stuff in home directory.

Trouble us that it gets the tag, and starts fetching Metadata, but terminates with no message before it prints ..done. Not even a /n.

Anyone know why before I start digging?

Thanks, Frank.