>> I'm aware that a couple of people have hacked propper ACLs into recent
>> Linux kernels. This doesn't change the fact that the entire Unix
>> ecosystem still assumes that permissions are set via flat bitmasks. It's
>> almost infeasible to change this and still call the result "Unix".
>
> It's supported and works since ten years now (and according to wikipedia
> is supported in Konqueror and Nautilus since quite some time). Just
> because you put Linux and Unix in the same bag and Unix doesn't support
> some things (which is by the way in this case not true since ACL's come
> from Unix) does not mean that Linux can't do it or that it is a "hack".
> And yes, Linux is not Unix and it shows in some details like this.
> The fact, that a lot of distributions don't enable it by default means
> that most people don't need it, but for sure it is there (same with
> Extended Attributes, which are also not enabled by default but you just
> have to switch it on).
> So yes, you can set arbitrary user rights - you just have to enable it. I
> even doubt that there is no solution to the file locking problem - but I
> don't really know...

All Unix tools assume that file permissions are set using bitmasks. If 
this doesn't hold, most software designed for Unix-like operating 
systems simply stops working.

This is the trouble with having a wildly popular system - you can't 
change it. The fact that ACLs are turned off by default almost certainly 
has nothing to do with "people not needing it" - more likely it's turned 
off because it breaks so much stuff.

Similar problems with file locking. As I understand it, there's now an 
API to ask "is this file locked?", but if you don't use it, you bypass 
all the locking and can access a file even if it's locked. Yeah, that's 
really helpful.

I gather that Linux only just got the ability to notify you if a file 
changes. (At least modern Linux desktops manage to *use* this 
information correctly, which is more than Windows Explorer manages...)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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