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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!mcvax!ukc!its63b!simon
From: simon@its63b.ed.ac.uk (Simon Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: access(2) question
Message-ID: <488@its63b.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Sun, 21-Jun-87 17:19:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: its63b.488
Posted: Sun Jun 21 17:19:55 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Jun-87 03:40:11 EDT
References: <530@applix.UUCP>
Reply-To: simon@its63b.ed.ac.uk (Simon Brown)
Organization: Computer Science Department, Edinburgh University
Lines: 21
Keywords: access permissions

In article <530@applix.UUCP> mark@applix.UUCP (Mark Fox) writes:
>Does anybody know why access checks file accessibility using the real [ug]id
>in place of the effective [ug]id? It seems to me that access should agree
>with open(2) as far as whether a program has write or read access to a file.

Nah, I always thought that access exists to allow you to check whether someone
*should* be able to use a file, not whether they actually *can* or not. After
all, surely the easist way to check if you can physically open a file is to
try opening it and seeing what happens, No?

	%{
	    Simon!
	%}

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| Simon Brown 		         | UUCP:  seismo!mcvax!ukc!its63b!simon
| Department of Computer Science | JANET: simon@uk.ac.ed.its63b
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