On 5/22/07, Robert Connolly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Monday May 21 2007 09:36:10 pm Randy McMurchy wrote: > > > > What does this package add? How does it help BLFS packages > > that reference it as a dependency? Please, understand I'm > > looking for specific references that enhance a package.
Libcap is a very simple library. All it does it abstract an interface to the linux posix.1e capabilities, which have been in since linux-2.2. I'm not a programmer, but the most important thing it allows us here is dropping privileges to a different user, like Robert mentioned with ntpd. http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/security/linux-privs/kernel-2.4/capfaq-0.2.txt > Libcap is similar to Cracklib, in that nothing actually depends on it, and it > provide an enhancement. The problems with Libcap is that 1) it's not > maintained, and 2) the packages that can use it mark it as experimental. I think the main reasons it's not maintained anymore are * The Posix.1e spec was written 8 years ago and hasn't changed * It's a very simple userspace library wrapping the kernel interface, which hasn't changed in a long time It'd be cool if there was an upstream to fix these minor issues like with the newer kernel headers. That said, it's not that big a deal to me if it's in or out. I just wanted to point out that it has a use and the fact that there's no new development isn't necessarily because it's abandoned. -- Dan -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-dev FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
