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Re: chmod (fileutils) 4.1 April 2001 - Missing dereference?


From: Bob Proulx
Subject: Re: chmod (fileutils) 4.1 April 2001 - Missing dereference?
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 20:29:02 -0600
User-agent: Mutt/1.4i

> I'm reading the manual page for chmod and I can't find any options for 
> dereference or no-dereference for symbolic links like the chown and chgrp 
> programs do.
> Does chmod have those options?

It reads much more nicely if you wrap your long lines at some
reasonable column.  Consider configuring your mailer to be
friendlier to others.

The chown and chgrp commands rely upon the operating system kernel
system call lchown() to be able to operatin on symbolink links.  No
such call exists for chmod.  No lchmod() exists.  Therefore the
command cannot implement that functionaltiy.  It is an operating
system limitation.

Note that none of owner, group or mode on a symlink are anything more
that cosmetic.  They have no effect whatsoever on your ability to
access the file the symlink points to.  They are just there for
looks.  It is useless information.

Bob



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