docs/84265: chmod(1) manpage omits implication of setting w on directory

Gary W. Swearingen garys at opusnet.com
Sun Jul 31 21:30:15 UTC 2005


The following reply was made to PR docs/84265; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: garys at opusnet.com (Gary W. Swearingen)
To: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida at freebsd.org>
Cc: bug-followup at freebsd.org
Subject: Re: docs/84265: chmod(1) manpage omits implication of setting w on
 directory
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:25:12 -0700

 Giorgos Keramidas <keramida at freebsd.org> writes:
 
 > I'm not sure if I am happy when features of programs are documented as
 > the behavior of the file/directory creation code.
 
 I wasn't sure, either. But users with a different concept of "created"
 than a Unix programmer will cry "FALSE" when they read your ``Files
 created in a directory will be assigned the group ID of the
 directory''.  Many users don't know or care about system libraries
 that do file creation or directory modification.  The fact is that
 some software creates it with one group and some creates it with
 another group.  Thus my "generally".
 
 If you want your sentence, it should at least have another saying
 something like: "This rule has exceptions." or "Some software will
 appear to violate this convention".
 
 > Documenting the implications of write permission is important, but
 > please let us not modify perfectly fine parts of the manpage :-/
 
 The only thing my new paragraph was modifying was the DESCRIPTION
 section.  I'm not sure which perfectly fine parts you mean.
 
 I've probably said enough; do as you wish.



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