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Date:      Sun, 21 Jan 2001 13:11:57 GMT
From:      Salvo Bartolotta <bartequi@inwind.it>
To:        freebsd-doc@freebsd.org
Subject:   Handbook, Chapter 3.2 (Unix permissions), and chmod(1)  -- a suggestion
Message-ID:  <20010121.13115700@bartequi.ottodomain.org>

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Dear FreeBSD doc'ers,

The description of the Unix directory permissions in this section
might be a little confusing:

<blockquote>
The executable bit for a directory has a slightly different meaning
than that of files. When a directory is marked executable, it means it
can be searched into, for example, a directory listing can be done in
that directory.                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
</blockquote>                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


The following examples may illustrate my (little) point.


235 1:12pm ~ >=3D=3D=3D=3D> mkdir foo
236 1:12pm ~ >=3D=3D=3D=3D> cd foo
237 1:12pm ~/foo >=3D=3D=3D=3D> mkdir bar
238 1:12pm ~/foo >=3D=3D=3D=3D> chmod 100 bar  #make it searchable into =
by owner
239 1:13pm ~/foo >=3D=3D=3D=3D> ls bar
ls: bar: Permission denied             #can't list!


240 1:13pm ~/foo >=3D=3D=3D=3D> chmod 400 bar  #permission for listing
241 1:13pm ~/foo >=3D=3D=3D=3D> ls bar
242 1:13pm ~/foo >=3D=3D=3D=3D>                #no complaints


242 1:14pm ~/foo >=3D=3D=3D=3D> chmod 100 bar
243 1:14pm ~/foo >=3D=3D=3D=3D> cd bar         #can cd
244 1:14pm ~/foo/bar >=3D=3D=3D=3D>


An equivalent description to that quoted above is found in chmod(1).
Am I missing something ?


If not, you may wish to consider the following

<suggestion>
The executable bit for a directory has a slightly different meaning
than that of files. When a directory is marked executable, it means
you can cd, ie "Change Directories", to it. In particular, in order
for you to be able to cd to a subdirectory, the parent
(sub)directories must have the executable bit set.

N.B. a directory with ONLY the executable bit set allows you to
perform NO other operations: you can neither list the directory
contents nor create/modify/delete its file(s) or subdirectories.
</suggestion>

Best regards,
Salvo





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