Re: dropping setuid/setgid privileges, round 2

[Sam Steingold]

Bruno Haible wrote:
> * Regarding abort() vs. "return -1" - hi Sam! -, they say:
>   "But while reporting failure through return values is possible, we advise
>    against it, as it might leave the identity in an inconsistent state. Thus,
>    when an identity change fails in the middle, programmers should either
>    abort, or really know what they’re doing."

You ain't listening.
I am not saying that abort() is wrong.
I am saying that it must be accompanied by a meaningful message.
E.g, "Gnulib.drop_privileges_permanently: failed to drop privileges".
Or just "Error A23Z51DT97".
Then the user can google for the message and see what has happened, instead of 
filing a bug, identical (in essence) to 100s of already filed bugs - one for 
each package which uses this gnulib feature.

Sam