Re: RFC: changing the "+" in ls -l output to be "." or "+"

[Vikram Noel Ambrose <noel.ambrose@gmail.com>]

Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net> wrote:
>>> [ I'm Cc'ing bug-coreutils@gnu.org.
>>>   FYI, this is a continuation of discussion from the SELinux list:
>>>   http://marc.info/?t=120645074000003&r=1&w=2
>>>   and the debian bug tracking system: http://bugs.debian.org/472590
>>>
>>>   The problem is that on an SELinux-enabled system, 'ls -l's "+",
>>>   the "alternate access method" indicator, is useless, because it
>>>   appears on every file:
>>>
>>>       $ ls -glo /var
>>>       total 164
>>>       drwxr-xr-x+  3 4096 2008-03-29 08:43 kerberos
>>>       drwxr-xr-x+ 39 4096 2008-03-29 08:43 lib
>>>       drwxr-xr-x+  2 4096 2008-03-27 17:33 local
>>>       drwxrwxr-x+  8 4096 2008-03-31 04:15 lock
>>>       drwxr-xr-x+ 20 4096 2008-03-31 09:55 log
>>>       lrwxrwxrwx+  1   10 2008-03-28 23:33 mail -> spool/mail
>>>       ...
>>>
>>>   Newer POSIX allows any non-space character as the indicator, and
>>>   that's what we're discussing now.
>>>   ]
>>>
>>> Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
>>>       
>>>> On Wednesday 26 March 2008 04:31, Michael Stone <mstone@debian.org> wrote:
>>>>         
>>>>> if (acl) then '+'
>>>>> else if (selinux) then '.'
>>>>>           
>>>> Should there be some special marking of files with both a SE Linux context and
>>>> an ACL?
>>>>
>>>> Pity that they didn't choose an "a" to mark an ACL which would then permit
>>>> using "A" for ACL + MAC.
>>>>         
>>> This is probably as good a time as any to make such a change, though
>>> I doubt it will make the cut for the upcoming release.  I'd like to keep
>>> it simple (i.e., not try to encode all possible combinations).  If you
>>> want to get full details, stat(1) is probably the program to change.
>>>
>>> I like Michael's suggestion.  Rephrasing it,
>>>
>>>     if (SELinux, with no other MAC or ACL)
>>>       use '.'
>>>     else if (any other combination of alternate access methods)
>>>       use '+'
>>>
>>> If someone who already has a copyright assignment on file for coreutils
>>> wants to write the patch (including doc update, tests, NEWS, ChangeLog,
>>> etc.), please speak up ASAP.  Otherwise I'll do it.
>>>       
>> No one spoke up, so here's code, for discussion's sake.
>> I've tested it only lightly.
>> This change is not slated for the upcoming release.
>>
>> Here's sample output, running on an SELinux system:
>>
>>   $ src/ls -ldgo [ac]*
>>   -rw-r--r--.  1   42625 2008-04-02 19:31 aclocal.m4
>>   drwxr-xr-x.  2    4096 2008-04-02 19:31 autom4te.cache
>>   -rw-r--r--.  1    1597 2008-03-21 16:35 cfg.mk
>>   -rw-r--r--.  1 1417195 2008-04-02 19:33 config.log
>>   -rwxr-xr-x.  1   71225 2008-04-02 19:33 config.status
>>   -rwxr-xr-x.  1 1846424 2008-04-02 19:31 configure
>>   -rw-r--r--.  1   12014 2008-03-25 23:55 configure.ac
>>     

This is so confusing. What is so horribly wrong with a capital S for 
SELinux or A for ACL?

Vikram

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