Re: x bit for dirs: misfeature?

Alexander Viro
2001-11-19T14:46:53Z

On Mon, 19 Nov 2001, vda wrote:

> Everytime I do 'chmod -R a+rX dir' and wonder are there
> any executables which I don't want to become world executable,
> I think "Whatta hell with this x bit meaning 'can browse'
> for dirs?! Who was that clever guy who invented that? Grrrr"
>
> Isn't r sufficient? Can we deprecate x for dirs?
> I.e. make it a mirror of r: you set r, you see x set,
> you clear r, you see x cleared, set/clear x = nop?

See UNIX FAQ. Ability to read != ability to lookup.

Trivial example: you have a directory with a bunch of subdirectories.
You want owners of subdirectories to see them. You don't want them
to _know_ about other subdirectories.

--
BUGS
There's no perm option for the naughty bits.
BSD chmod(1)