Package: fakeroot-ng (0.12-3)

Gives a fake root environment

This is a clean reimplementation of the fakeroot command. Just like it, anything run within the fake root command will assume it is running as root. Unlike it, fakeroot-ng is not based on LD_PRELOAD but on ptrace.

The practical upshot of this is that the technology supports intercepting the "open" system call. In particular, this allows (though is not yet implemented) simulating the "chroot" command reliably.

Another important difference is that fakeroot-ng can fool applications that do not perform system calls through glibc, such as statically linked executables and programs written in some non-C languages (like the latest Sun JDK).

Tags: Software Development: Build Tool, Implemented in: C++, Role: Program