Status of capabilities?

[Michael Kerrisk]

When I asked the question below a while back, I got no response.  Is there
really noone who can say anything about the future of capabilities?

Cheers

Michael

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:       Fri, 10 May 2002 08:28:55 +0200 (MEST)
From:            Michael Kerrisk <[e-mail]>
Subject:         Status of capabilities?
To:              [e-mail]

Gidday,

What are the current status and future of capabilites?  There seems to be no
up-to-date information on this anywhere.

It seems capabilities have been partly implemented since 2.2.  That is to
say:

1. The kernel checks (effective) capabilities when performing various
operations.

2. System calls are provided to raise and lower capabilties

What's still missing in 2.4, as far as I can see after reading the sources,
is the ability to set capabilities on executable files so that a process
gains those privileges when executing the file.  I recall seeing some
information somewhere saying this wasn't possible / wasn't going to happen
for ext2.  Is it on the drawing board for any file system?

Thanks

Michael