On Tue, 23 Mar 2004, Backward Thinker wrote:
> chmod g+s like you have it in /var/spool/mail is meaningless for
> directories.
Well, not quite. Often it causes new files in that directory to be
created with a group ownership identical to the group ownership of the
directory. (which in combination with a properly set umask can be
somewhat convenient for shared directories)
But this is not a standard feature, it's a way to select between
historical BSD and SysV behaviors on systems that support it (Linux is one
of them though, at least any version to my knowledge).
> o+t is sticky bit for a directory, already addressed above, meaningless
> for programs, but comes in very handy for publicly writable directories.
Again, not quite true. Setting the sticky bit on a program used to select
whether its text would be cached in main memory for performance purposes
(hence the term "sticky"). But on any modern paged virtual memory UNIX,
it's meaningless. If you're stuck (heh) on a system that honors sticky
bits on executables, then you need to do a forklift upgrade (or you work
for a gov't agency).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 19:38:44 EDT