Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by TFortunato 998 days ago
> it's not the file system that's the problem here, it's that "everything is a file" is not true for a whole bunch of important stuff that you might want to apply access control to on a UNIX system

I wonder if there has ever been an attempt to really lean into, and push the limits of sticking with the "everything is a file" philosophy in this realm.

I.e. how far could you get with having special files for fine grained permissions like "right to initiate a TCP connection", and making access control management be, essentially, managing which groups a user belonged to?

3 comments

Plan 9 probably took this the furthest. Sad it didn't take off. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs
I think that was Plan 9.
I think Hurd and Plan 9 take the EIAF further.