Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!ns-mx!iowasp!ceres!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!gryphon!ttg
From: ttg@gryphon.COM (Ted Garrett)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: Fixdisk strangeness
Keywords: ksh changes...
Message-ID: <25508@gryphon.COM>
Date: 3 Feb 90 04:04:05 GMT
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, Ca.
Lines: 25

I noticed today that a function in my .kshrc is no longer functional.  The
basis of it is :

if [ -w /etc/cron ]
then
   ROOT=" root "
else
   ROOT=""
fi

What this is supposed to do is set the variable ROOT to " root " if you are
in Super User mode (basis is that if you are root, you can write to cron).

In the new ksh (from the fixdisk), this no longer works as previously expected
because cron's permissions and ownership are 

Permissions : 700
Owner : bin
Group : bin

So while this is a correction of a 'bug' in the ksh permissions checking, it's
inconvenient in that I had to search out a file on my system which is actually
owned by root and is read/write only by root.  I used /etc/group.

No biggie, but it may change the way some things get done on your system.