Re: Filesystem Capabilities in 2.6?

[Werner Almesberger <wa@almesberger.net>]

Alan Cox wrote:
> anywhere near it. One thing Unix actually got right from the beginning
> is that rights belong to objects not to names. Name based labelling has
> never worked in or out of computing.

I think the most important aspects are always that the concept is
understandable, doesn't make the users to jump through hoops, and
doesn't violate the principle of least surprise too often.

> What you are suggesting is the equivalent of marking documents 'secret'
> by putting them in a specific drawer and hoping nobody ever misfiles it.
> Everyone instead writes "secret" on the document - guess why

This happens if you have a design that is based on taking away
privileges/rights/capabilities/power/whatever. If the "naked"
object has no special powers, misfiling it does no damage at all.

Of course, you want to make sure nothing else can be slipped into
that magic drawer. Just imagine somebody takes the GPL from The
Drawer of World Domination, and puts the Windows EULA there :-)

- Werner

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 / Werner Almesberger, Buenos Aires, Argentina         wa@almesberger.net /
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