David Daney wrote: > > 'strace' of this program shows that the system call that returns with -1/EPERM > > is a call to SYS_6254 (in n32 ABI) or SYS_5250 (in 64 ABI). > > > Can you get strace -- version 4.5.20 or later and build it for the > corresponding ABI? That should properly decode the relevant syscalls. Version 4.6, built with "gcc -m64", compared to version 4.5.17: For the program in ABI 64: strace 4.5.17 reports SYS_5250() = -1 EPERM (Operation not permitted) strace 4.6 reports nothing, it stopped the log after it saw an exit() call: getsockopt(1099511620912, 0xfffff820 /* SOL_??? */, 1099511625776, 0, 0x5555748ed0) = 0 svr4_syscall() = 5012 exit(1099511623472) = ? fchownat: Operation not permitted fchownat: Operation not permitted fchownat: Operation not permitted For the program in ABI n32: strace 4.5.17 reports SYS_6254() = -1 EPERM (Operation not permitted) strace 4.6 reports n32_inotify_add_watch(0xffffffffffffff9c, 0x10000a30, 0xffffffff) = -1 EPERM (Operation not permitted) n32_inotify_add_watch(0xffffffffffffff9c, 0x10000a30, 0x4f0) = -1 EPERM (Operation not permitted) n32_inotify_add_watch(0xffffffffffffff9c, 0x10000a30, 0xffffffff) = -1 EPERM (Operation not permitted) For the program in ABI 32: strace 4.5.17 reports fchownat(AT_FDCWD, "foo.c", -1, 1264, 0) = 0 fchownat(AT_FDCWD, "foo.c", 1264, -1, 0) = 0 fchownat(AT_FDCWD, "foo.c", -1, -1, 0) = 0 strace 4.6 reports o32_fchownat(0xffffffffffffff9c, 0x400b00, 0xffffffffffffffff, 0x4f0, 0) = 0 o32_fchownat(0xffffffffffffff9c, 0x400b00, 0x4f0, 0xffffffffffffffff, 0) = 0 o32_fchownat(0xffffffffffffff9c, 0x400b00, 0xffffffffffffffff, 0xffffffffffffffff, 0) = 0 These traces reveal that - in ABI 32 (the case that works) the value (uid_t)-1 is being passed to the kernel as 0xffffffffffffffff, - in ABI n32 (the case that fails) the value (uid_t)-1 is being passed to the kernel as 0x00000000ffffffff. Note that 'uid_t' is 'unsigned int' in userland. Bruno -- In memoriam Helmuth Hübener <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_Hübener>