Re: [PATCH] chroot specify user/group feature

[Jim Meyering]

Giuseppe Scrivano wrote:
> I submitted a patch that allows to specify the user and the group after
> the chroot is performed.
>
> It is attached here: https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?10384
>
> What do you think about it?

Hi Giuseppe,

Thank you for the patch.
I like the idea.

In the future, please send patches by mail to the bug-coreutils list.
Most of the people who will review them here prefer that.

If you'd like to pursue, here are some suggestions:

  - MAXUID was defined but never used, so please remove it
  - there is a --help formatting nit exposed by failing "make syntax-check":

src/chroot.c:122:  -u, --userspec specify the userspec in the form USER:GROUP\n\
maint.mk: help2man requires at least two spaces between
maint.mk: an option and its description
make: *** [sc_two_space_separator_in_usage] Error 1

  - do not add short-named options.  People who want to
      abbreviate can use --u or --g.
  - exit right away upon encountering an invalid option.
      Make the option-processing loop look like most others, i.e.,
      with a switch and anonymous enum values in place of your
      current 'u' and 'g'.

  - add a NEWS entry
  - add documentation in coreutils.texi

And for extra credit,

  - add a test or two to exercise the new functionality.
      It'll have to be a root-only test, of course.