Re: Permission models [was: Re: About the login shell]
Lionel Elie Mamane <lionel@mamane.lu> wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 20, 2002 at 11:28:07AM -0500, Tom Hart wrote:
> > I assume that the Hurd is sticking with the traditional UN*X model
> > because most sysadmins who are used to UNIX will find this easier to
> > work with.
>
> Hmm... The Hurd clearly departs from the UNIX way where it can do
> better, in a way that permits it to show an unixy interface to unix
> programs. I don't think this is the reason.
We have to implement what POSIX specifies, which is the traditional Unix
model. But actually we do have an extension above it for more
fine-grained access, but applications must be aware of it: To some
extend, we have capabilities. For example when you have opened a file
in readonly-mode, the coresponding port is a capability for reading from
this file. When you pass this port to another task, you have given the
task just the permission to read from the file.
For those interested in reading more about capabilities, I can recommend
<http://www.eros-os.org/essays/capintro.html> as an introduction.
Cheers,
GNU/Wolfgang
--
Wolfgang Jährling <wolfgang@pro-linux.de> \\ http://stdio.cjb.net/
Debian GNU/Hurd user && Debian GNU/Linux user \\ http://www.gnu.org/
The Hurd Hacking Guide: http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/
["Enjoy this bug as long as you can, because when we will fix it, you ]
[ will get the correct, non-functional behaviour" -- Marcus Brinkmann ]
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