coreutils uses libcap for displaying assigned "file capabilities" in output of ls command.
You are right that coreutils only uses sys-libs/libcap to understand set capabilities to be able to display them in utilities like "ls". There's nothing in coreutils which will drop privileges like most packages which uses "caps" USE flag do. However, "filecaps" USE flag is used for packages which set Linux capabilities in pkg_postinst. So none of the USE flags provide a 100% match. Because a package which usually uses libcap to drop privileges usually links against sys-libs/libcap which is the case for coreutils when build with "caps" USE flag as well, > # lddtree /bin/ls > /bin/ls (interpreter => /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2) > libcap.so.2 => /lib64/libcap.so.2 > libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 we will keep "caps" USE flag. But I will provide a better description for "caps" USE flag for coreutils package.
The bug has been closed via the following commit(s): https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=0edff67f453a7509c08fce538d3da9c947daa433 commit 0edff67f453a7509c08fce538d3da9c947daa433 Author: Thomas Deutschmann <whissi@gentoo.org> AuthorDate: 2017-11-06 16:20:43 +0000 Commit: Thomas Deutschmann <whissi@gentoo.org> CommitDate: 2017-11-06 16:20:57 +0000 sys-apps/coreutils: Rev bump to address multiple test failures - Running test suite with FEATURES=usersandbox is no longer supported due to various sandbox issues. (bug #413621, #439574, #629660) - Due to sandbox failures previously disabled tests re-enabled. (bug #415487) - tests/ls/readdir-mountpoint-inode test failure fixed. (bug #353164) - "caps" USE flag description more specified. (bug #617702 - Tools/programs/libraries used in test suite now listed in DEPEND="test? (...)" which requires re-keywording for some architectures. Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/413621 Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/439574 Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/629660 Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/415487 Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/353164 Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/617702 Package-Manager: Portage-2.3.13, Repoman-2.3.4 sys-apps/coreutils/Manifest | 1 + sys-apps/coreutils/coreutils-8.28-r1.ebuild | 210 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ sys-apps/coreutils/metadata.xml | 1 + 3 files changed, 212 insertions(+)