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Re: your mail



On Wed, 28 Aug 1996, Ira Abramov wrote:

> no, he is right, it IS a problem. I have looked it up many times and
> nobody on Unix Unleashed, Linux Networking, Unix admins for dummies and
> all the rest, REALLY explains the sticky bit, or what a sgid bit on a
> directory does... all from asking Army unix gurus (I didn't know you
> University smarties at the time!)

Absolutely FALSE. RTFM Stevens who is, indubitably, God, Messiah and the 
Holy Virgin rolled into one.

SUID on a directory has NO meaning.

SGID on a direcroty means that files created in the directory are 
automagicly chgrp'ed to the group of the directory.

Sticky Bit USED to mean (on an executable file) "Do not clear page after
program termination" thus saving time on loads of common programs. This
usage is almost never seen now. 

When used on a DIRECTORY, the sticky bit allows (in an otherwise writable
directory) deletion (and moving) of files in the said directory ONLY to
the files' owner, the directory's owner and root. 


This information, by the way, is directly from Stevens:

Advance Programming in the Unix Environment,
W. Richard Stevens
Eigth Printing
(c) 1992 Addison-Wesley.
ISBN 0-201-56317-7

---MAV                              (finger for PGP signature block)
My opinions are my own and only my own. Standard disclaimer applies.
Marc A. Volovic (marc@cs.huji.ac.il)       Linguists do it cunningly



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