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From: alex@pc.cc.cmu.edu (alex wetmore)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.bugs,comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: chroot() in FreeBSD 1.1.5.1
Followup-To: comp.os.386bsd.bugs,comp.os.386bsd.questions
Date: 11 Nov 1994 16:37:46 GMT
Organization: Phred Networking
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Distribution: world
Message-ID: <3a06kq$9bs@dagny.galt.com>
References: <39vvl6$90m@clavin.uprc.com>
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> Big question: why can't normal users call chroot???
Dirname is the address of the pathname of a directory, terminated by an
ASCII NUL. Chroot() causes dirname to become the root directory, that
is, the starting point for path searches of pathnames beginning with `/'.
In order for a directory to become the root directory a process must have
execute (search) access for that directory.
It should be noted that chroot() has no effect on the process's current
directory.
This call is restricted to the super-user.
I'm not sure why its implemented this way. I thought I would find an
answer in Leffler, et al, but I just checked and it didn't say. The source
code for the system call doesn't say either.
alex