The initial commit for this feature, I think, was at
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=b53767719b6cd8789392ea3e7e2eb7b8906898f0

Subsequent mods went in as well.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux product management has reviewed this request. Based on
the complexity and intrusiveness, the requested change has been deemed
inappropriate for a backport to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. It will be
considered in the next major version of Enterprise Linux.

The core feature will be in RHEL 6, as we're including a late enough kernel.
Either reopen with more information re: comment #6, or open specific bugs against the components that need modified for full support (rpm, for example.)

File capabilities are present, can be manipulated with setcap and file capabalities are used.

* vim cap.c       
* getcap cap
* gcc cap.c -o cap
* ./cap
chown: Operation not permitted
[borix@dhcp-31-190 ~]$ exit
* su
Password: 
[root@dhcp-31-190]# setcap cap_chown=ep cap
[root@dhcp-31-190]# exit
* ./cap
chown: Success
* ls -l /root/
ls: cannot open directory /root/: Permission denied
[borix@dhcp-31-190 ~]$ ls -l /root/ -d
dr-xr-x---. 9 1000 1000 4096 Jun 22 13:49 /root/
* cat cap.c 
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main(void){
	chown("/root", 1000, 1000);
	perror("chown");
	return 0;
}
*

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Beta 2 is now available and should resolve
the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed
with a resolution of CURRENTRELEASE. You may reopen this bug report if the
solution does not work for you.