Who enforces the exec bit on plan9? It appears to me (though my code may be buggy) that the file server is expected to enforce the exec bit in the file's modes when a file is opened with OEXEC.
I would have expected rc(1) to have checked the mode and not to have tried to exec() the file if the exec bit in the file's mode is not set. Is it another case of "This is Plan9 not Unix" or perhaps I am mis-remembering that too? -Steve