Re: possible new feature for chmod

[Paul Eggert]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" <address@hidden> writes:

>    Why not fix these problems by disambiguating the syntax?  You can put
>    a new character in front of the new-format mode strings.  E.g.,
> 
>      chmod %-rw-rw-r-- file
> 
> Why not fix it with a seperate option instead (which this basicly is)?

Because the same syntax is used in other places, e.g.:

  install -m %-rw-rw-r-- file directory
  mkdir -m %drwxr-xr-x directory

and similarly for mkfifo and mknod.

I suppose we could use a --ls-mode option instead.  But it seems more
consistent to me to make the suggestion improvement part of the mode
syntax, since it's meant to take the place of 755, which is already
part of the mode syntax.

If you don't like '%', perhaps you'd prefer '@'?  That might be a
little clearer.