Many to one translations in setrans.conf

[Joe Nall <joe nall com>]

We have been using /etc/selinux/mls/setrans.conf files that use  
multiple equivalent translations to support common aliases. For example:

s2:c1.c225,c227.c253=CONFIDENTIAL//REL FU
s2:c1.c225,c227.c253=C O N F I D E N T I A L REL FU
s2:c1.c225,c227.c253=C O N F I D E N T I A L RELEASABLE TO FU
s2:c1.c225,c227.c253=CONFIDENTIAL//REL BAR
s2:c1.c225,c227.c253=C O N F I D E N T I A L REL BAR
s2:c1.c225,c227.c253=C O N F I D E N T I A L RELEASABLE TO BAR

This has the effect of mapping all of these labels to a common  
context. This context maps back to the first translation  
(CONFIDENTIAL//REL FU).

'semanage translation -a -T ...'  has different behavior. When a  
translation is added, it rewrites the file using the last (C O N F I  
D E N T I A L RELEASABLE TO BAR) translation and deletes the other  
translations. It also moves all of the comments to the top, moving  
them away from the translation they are documenting.

Should we be using this many to one behavior to support aliases? Is  
it broken in other ways that we have not discovered yet?

joe