From: utzoo!decvax!minow
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Title: Re: How about VMS-style protection?
Article-I.D.: decvax.348
Posted: Mon Nov 29 18:04:47 1982
Received: Tue Nov 30 03:22:38 1982
References: unc.4330

Tim Maroney's suggestion -- that Unix implement VMS Read/Write/Execute/Delete
protections -- forgot to mention that VMS, unlike Unix, implements file
versions.  Thus, programs generally blindly create output files.  If
something blows up, you can delete the most recent instance of a file.

I frequently clean out trash from my accounts and, in order to avoid
cleaning out something that may look like a temp file but isn't, I
set its protection ("Owner may not delete"), then do the deletion,
ignoring the warning message.  The owner may always reset the protection,
by the way.

Version numbers are a mixed blessing, however, as forgetful users can
leave hugh numbers of random junk around.

No free lunch.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow