The main aim of this article is to survey and discuss the existing state of art concerning the assignability by a feedback of numerical characteristics of linear continuous and discrete time-varying systems. Most of the results present necessary or sufficient conditions for different formulation of the Lyapunov spectrum assignability problem. These conditions are expressed in terms of various controllability types and optimalizability of the controlled systems and certain properties of the free system such as: regularity, diagonalizability, boundness away, integral separation and reducibility.