From 2e20968feb2eb720fc7906fb1ceb9e7185412610 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ned Deily Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:14:02 -0700 Subject: Issue #10433: Document unique behavior of 'os.getgroups' on Mac OS X. --- Doc/library/os.rst | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+) diff --git a/Doc/library/os.rst b/Doc/library/os.rst index be322a0..0b66d2b 100644 --- a/Doc/library/os.rst +++ b/Doc/library/os.rst @@ -227,6 +227,20 @@ process and user. Availability: Unix. + .. note:: On Mac OS X, :func:`getgroups` behavior differs somewhat from + other Unix platforms. If the Python interpreter was built with a + deployment target of :const:`10.5` or earlier, :func:`getgroups` returns + the list of effective group ids associated with the current user process; + this list is limited to a system-defined number of entries, typically 16, + and may be modified by calls to :func:`setgroups` if suitably privileged. + If built with a deployment target greater than :const:`10.5`, + :func:`getgroups` returns the current group access list for the user + associated with the effective user id of the process; the group access + list may change over the lifetime of the process, it is not affected by + calls to :func:`setgroups`, and its length is not limited to 16. The + deployment target value, :const:`MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET`, can be + obtained with :func:`sysconfig.get_config_var`. + .. function:: initgroups(username, gid) @@ -389,6 +403,10 @@ process and user. Availability: Unix. + .. note:: On Mac OS X, the length of *groups* may not exceed the + system-defined maximum number of effective group ids, typically 16. + See the documentation for :func:`getgroups` for cases where it may not + return the same group list set by calling setgroups(). .. function:: setpgrp() -- cgit v0.12