Mimeograph is mostly a wrapper over rsync.  Because it is used to preserve the
whole system, it needs super use privileges.  It is expected than end users
will use sudo to run the mimeograph executable.  Because many of the mimeograph
tests actually run rsync against real files, it is necessary for the tests to
be able to run mimeograph with super user privileges without needing to enter a
password.  In order to run the mimeograph tests you will need to edit your
/etc/sudoers file to allow a couple of commands to be run without a password.
If you already have sudo access to run all commands USING a password, you
probably want a line that looks something like this:

<username> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: <path to project>/examples_lib/spec_rig/make_device, <path to project>/bin/mimeograph