[GLLUG] Problem noticed following the latest update to Debian 8.8.0

[Chris Bell]

On Tuesday 09 May 2017 08:41:26 John Winters via GLLUG wrote:
> On 08/05/17 21:08, Chris Bell wrote:
> > On Monday 08 May 2017 20:46:12 John Winters via GLLUG wrote:
> >> On 08/05/17 20:40, Chris Bell via GLLUG wrote:
> >> [snip query about file permissions on USB stick]
> >> 
> >>> I have tried dismounting and re-mounting the USB stick, but I am not
> >>> sure
> >>> whether this is a KDE quirk, a problem with the USB stick, or something
> >>> else.
> >> 
> >> How is your USB stick formatted?  If it's the default FAT-family
> >> formatting then it doesn't support permissions.
> >> 
> >> Nothing to do with Debian or KDE.
> >> 
> >> Cheers,
> >> John
> > 
> > That sounds reasonable, it is the original default format, but all the
> > other files with it are shown as 644.
> > I have just tried chown to root, with no change seen.
> 
> You can't chown on a FAT file system - it has no concept of file ownership.
> 
> > I noticed the permissions when I saved the files to the main hard disc and
> > checked. I can change the file permissions on the main hard disc, copy it
> > to another name and save it back to disc as 644, but it will still copy
> > both the files to the USB stick and show mode 755 with all other files
> > showing 644.
> Are you sure you're not looking at a directory?  That will have
> permissions 0755.
> 
> IIRC, the only thing you can change about a file on a FAT file system is
> the read-only flag.  Thus you can change permissions from 0644 to 0444
> but that's it.
> 
> It's a property of the file system - not the file.
> 
> HTH
> John

I took the USB stick to a different computer in a different building and that 
single file still showed the 755 permissions, but just loading it into a 
"simple" text editor (kwrite) and re-saving it over the original file changed 
it to 644. I am still puzzled. There are no "hidden" files listed, perhaps the 
information is hidden in the file holding the directory list.
I have noticed that kwrite and the "advanced" kate are virtually the same 
except that kwrite opens each file in a separate window instead of all in the 
same window on the same virtual desktop with kate, but it does not seem to be 
possible to change the default from the kate method to that of kwrite, I have 
to open a new window first each time before I can view two files side by side or 
use the menu to choose kwrite.

-- 
Chris Bell
website chrisbell.org.uk