A Time Namespace Has Been Proposed For The Linux Kernel

[phoronix]

Phoronix: A Time Namespace Has Been Proposed For The Linux Kernel

A set of experimental patches were sent out on Wednesday for implementing a time namespace within the kernel, part of an effort that's been going on for more than a decade around time virtualization...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Time-Namespace-RFC

[GunpowaderGuy]

c has namespaces or is this one of gcc's extensions ?

[curfew]

c has namespaces or is this one of gcc's extensions ?

It's got nothing to do with programming. It is a kernel feature.

[dstaubsauger]

It's got nothing to do with programming. It is a kernel feature.

Is that the thing that makes containers see only their own part of the userland, and have a separate virtual networking device?

[wpupkin]

http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/unshare.1.html

[starshipeleven]

Is that the thing that makes containers see only their own part of the userland, and have a separate virtual networking device?

Yeah, namespaces are used to keep processes (applications) isolated from the rest of the system while still accessing the resources they need, without going into a full blown VM. This thing would allow to manipulate the time reported to selected applications, or containers.

Namespaces are used by systemd and logind to isolate processes and users, and also by Flatpack for sandboxing.

[swoorup]

This would allow to easily circumvent time-based licenses.

[sarfarazahmad]

you can always try circumventing time based licenses with libfaketime.