Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: File Write Permission Rules Keywords: file write permission rules Message-ID: <5714@bsu-cs.UUCP> Date: 15 Feb 89 18:31:27 GMT References: <306@wubios.wustl.edu> <1177@ubu.warwick.UUCP> Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana Lines: 21 In article <1177@ubu.warwick.UUCP> mirk@uk.ac.warwick.cs (Mike Taylor) writes: [the unix permissions scheme is intuitive because a directory is a list of files] There is still a flaw. If a directory is like the card catalog in a library, and the files themselves are like the books, then it is counter-intuitive that, when somebody vandalizes the card catalog, all the books are destroyed too. In UNIX, the existence of a file under normal circumstances is nearly synonymous with the existence of its directory entry. In a sense the directory entry represents the file to the user, since he cannot look at the file in any other way. It *is* counterintuitive that a read-only file cannot be written to but can still be deleted. Thank heavens for the sticky bit on directories. It came just in time, and does invalidate much of the criticism. -- Rahul Dhesi UUCP: !{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi ARPA: bsu-cs!dhesi@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu