[Wylug-help] Permissions (Was: Procmail problem - resolved)

[Smylers]

Anne Wilson writes:

> For the record, the problem was one of permissions.

Oh dear.

> I'm not sure how achieved such a troublesome mess, but I had somehow
> changed the perms.

I wonder ...

> I put it back to 644 and all is well again.

... whether that "644" is a clue.  I don't remember ever really
suffering from problems with permissions.  Equally, I've never
completely got my head round the binary/octal arithmetic necessary for
setting permissions like 644.

If I want to make a file executable I set +x; if I want to reduce the
chance I'll edit it by mistake I set -w; if I want the file's owner only
to be able to read it, the group to read and write, and others no access
at all then I set u=r,g=rw,o=.  In all cases the chmod arg I supply
exactly models the behaviour I'm desiring to effect -- no need for octal
sums, nor for remembering pairs of 3-digit numbers and their behaviours.

Many people seem to have a few troubles with permissions.  If you're one
of them then I'd advise completely forgetting about the numbers (not
learning them in the first place is probably superior, but if that's
already happened there isn't much you can do) and giving the symbols a
try instead -- it may not suit everybody, but it's probably worth a go.

Cheers.

Smylers
-- 
May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a
difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.