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@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +pseudo -- an analogue to sudo + +OVERVIEW: + +The pseudo utility offers a way to run commands in a virtualized "root" +environment, allowing ordinary users to run commands which give the illusion +of creating device nodes, changing file ownership, and otherwise doing +things necessary for creating distribution packages or filesystems. + +To configure, run the provided configure script. Note that this is +NOT an autoconf script. + +Configure options: + --prefix=/path/to/install/dir + --with-sqlite=/path/to/sqlite/dir + --bits={32,64} + --suffix=<text> + +There is no default prefix. The default for sqlite is /usr, and for +bits is 32. You need a reasonably modern sqlite3 -- it has to have +sqlite3_clear_bindings(), which at least one default sqlite3 install +did not. (But that was dated 2006, so I'm not sure this will affect +most readers.) + +The suffix value can be used to append a particular text string to file +names (such as libpseudo<suffix>.so). This was used in the WR environment +to create libpseudo-<host_libc_md5sum>.so, to ensure that libpseudo was +rebuilt if the host libc changed. + +This code is not particularly portable -- it's never been tried on anything +but Linux, although it runs on a pretty broad range of Linux systems. + +Limited user documentation is provided in the given man page files (these +are not currently installed, merely provided in the source directory), and +some documentation on internals is provided in the doc/ directory. + + +FUTURE DIRECTIONS: + +* We intend to add chroot() functionality to pseudo, as well as + functionality to support user name/uid lookups from an alternative + password file. +* We have no immediate plans to make pseudo work on other targets, but + are not opposed to accepting patches to do so. (It isn't even CLOSE + on OS X, largely because of the Linux-specific _STAT_VER stuff.) +* I have no intention of converting to autoconf. It is the wrong tool + for the job. + +Please feel free to send bug feedback, change requests, or general +commentary. + + +ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: + +My various coworkers, both engineering and management, made this possible. +While I did most of the actual typing, this code has benefitted greatly +from detailed code reviews, excellent reproducers for bugs, and the +consistent support of the whole group for the project. It's been a great +deal of fun, and I'm pretty happy that we're finally ready to make it +available for other people to look at. + |