Re: [TUHS] History of chown semantics

From: Clem Cole <clemc(a)ccc.com> Brian - right as I showed in the code snippet from V6 and PWB. The idea came into being with PWB. The question that is still open is why was it added/need in the first place? I always thought is was a crazy/miss feature, I think the argument is that if you owned the file, you should be allowed to give it to anyone else [including root] - but that actions opens up a number of issues (you pointed the big security one that was handled by and-ing off the SUID/SGID bits). There are accounting issues as well as the practical one that Tim and I pointed out with importing of files on a tape. As I said, the file give-away feature comes into UNIX with PWB, so I would ask Mash is he remembers why it was needed and why the SVID folks wanted it. As I said, I personally found it not useful/a bad idea/miss-feature. I remember that I soon after I learned about it/got bitten by the side effect, I ran into dmr and srb at a USENIX and asked them about that a few other System III features that I found a little strange. I don't remember much of the conversation. But, if there are been a "good" reason I think I would have remembered it and not always thought it to be a bad idea. Clem