CAPNG_PRINT_CAPS_TEXT(3)

✨ CAPNG_PRINT_CAPS_TEXT ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because this is a little function from the Libcap-ng API and she is so handy 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

capng_print_caps_text — she prints out the names of the values in your capabilities set 🎀

---

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <cap-ng.h>

char *capng_print_caps_text(capng_print_t where, capng_type_t which);

---

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so like, capng_print_caps_text will literally build you a text string representation of the internal capability set you specified. no cap, that's the whole job 💁♀️

and where does that pretty little string go? your choice, bestie — you pass either CAPNG_PRINT_STDOUT or CAPNG_PRINT_BUFFER for the where parameter:

• CAPNG_PRINT_STDOUT — it goes straight to stdout, main character energy 👑
• CAPNG_PRINT_BUFFER — it goes into a buffer

🚨 and if you picked the buffer option, listen up: this function will malloc a buffer for you, and you, the caller, must free it. not optional. do not ghost that free(), i'm begging 😭

now, the which parameter — the only legal values are these, and yes you gotta pick from this exact list:

• CAPNG_EFFECTIVE
• CAPNG_PERMITTED
• CAPNG_INHERITABLE
• CAPNG_BOUNDING_SET
• CAPNG_AMBIENT

that's the whole vibe check on which, periodt ✨

---

🫶 RETURN VALUE 🫶

depends on what you asked for, so pay attention:

• if you selected CAPNG_PRINT_BUFFER for where — you get the text buffer back, and NULL on failure. and again, don't forget to free it 🍓
• if you selected CAPNG_PRINT_STDOUT — this value will be NULL no matter what. like, always. don't come for her, that's just how it is 💀

---

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• capng_print_caps_numeric(3)
• capabilities(7)

---

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Steve Grubb 💖

---

and that's the tea, bestie 🧚 this page came to you courtesy of Red Hat, dated March 2026 — go free your buffers, ily, bye 💅✨🌸