Bug#814062: RFP: maybe -- run a command and see what it does to your files without actually doing it

[Francois Marier <francois@debian.org>]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist

* Package name    : maybe
  Version         : 0.3.0
  Upstream Author : Philipp Emanuel Weidmann <pew@worldwidemann.com>
* URL             : https://github.com/p-e-w/maybe
* License         : GPL
  Programming Lang: Python
  Description     : run a command and see what it does to your files without actually doing it

maybe runs processes under the control of ptrace (with the help of the
excellent python-ptrace library). When it intercepts a system call that is
about to make changes to the file system, it logs that call, and then
modifies CPU registers to both redirect the call to an invalid syscall ID
(effectively turning it into a no-op) and set the return value of that no-op
call to one indicating success of the original call.

As a result, the process believes that everything it is trying to do is
actually happening, when in reality nothing is.