--- projects/libstatgrab/docs/statgrab.xml	2003/10/21 15:48:55	1.2
+++ projects/libstatgrab/docs/statgrab.xml	2004/01/05 17:27:29	1.4
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 <refentry id="statgrab">
 
   <refentryinfo>
-    <date>$Date: 2003/10/21 15:48:55 $</date>
-    <releaseinfo>$Id: statgrab.xml,v 1.2 2003/10/21 15:48:55 pajs Exp $</releaseinfo>
+    <date>$Date: 2004/01/05 17:27:29 $</date>
+    <releaseinfo>$Id: statgrab.xml,v 1.4 2004/01/05 17:27:29 ats Exp $</releaseinfo>
   </refentryinfo>
   
   <refmeta>
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@
         <funcdef>int <function>statgrab_init</function></funcdef>
         <void/>
       </funcprototype>
+      <funcprototype>
+        <funcdef>int <function>statgrab_drop_privileges</function></funcdef>
+        <void/>
+      </funcprototype>
 
       <funcprototype>
         <funcdef>cpu_percent_t *<function>cpu_percent_usage</function></funcdef>
@@ -105,28 +109,34 @@
   <refsect1>
     <title>Description</title>
     <para>
-      The statgrab library provides a cross platform interface to getting
+      The statgrab library provides a cross-platform interface to getting
       system statistics. Each of the function calls returns a structure
       containing statistics. See the manual page for each individual
       function for more details on usage.
     </para>
     <para>
-      <function>statgrab_init(void)</function> should be the first
-      function you call before you start to use libstatgrab. This
-      function on *bsd systems opens up the kernel structures and
-      leaves them open for future use. Because of this, any special
-      privileges the program has (e.g. setgid kmem) can be dropped
-      after this call, and all the libstatgrab calls should continue to
-      work.
+      <function>statgrab_init</function> must be the first
+      function you call before you start to use libstatgrab; it performs all
+      the one-time initialisation operations that need setuid/setgid
+      privileges (for instance, on *BSD it opens a descriptor to be able to
+      read kernel structures later on, and on Solaris it reads the device
+      mappings that are only accessible by root). Once this has run,
+      the other libstatgrab functions no longer need elevated privileges.
+      It is therefore a good idea to call
+      <function>statgrab_drop_privileges</function>, which discards
+      setuid and setgid privileges, immediately after you call
+      <function>statgrab_init</function>, unless your application has
+      another reason for needing setuid or setgid privileges.
     </para>
     <para>
-      <function>statgrab_init</function> returns 0 on success, and
+      <function>statgrab_init</function> and
+      <function>statgrab_drop_privileges</function> return 0 on success, and
       non-zero on failure.
     </para>
     <para>
       The library was originally written to support the i-scream central
       monitoring system, but has since become a standalone package. It
-      has been ported to work on Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris.
+      has been ported to work on Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris and Cygwin.
     </para>
   </refsect1>