On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 15:20:48 -0500, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote: > Well, systems where ls -ld behaves differently aren't all that > uncommon. For instance, on some AFS installations you'll get only > three bits of permission instead of the usual nine. Personally, I'd > just mark everything executable if test -x didn't work.
That would not be an especially nice solution. For instance, I regularly work in enviornments where the behavior of double-clicking on a file's icon is in part determined by its "executable" bit. In such environments, double-clicking on a file with the executable bit set results in the system trying to "run" the file, even if the file is not a program or script, rather than opening the file with an appropriate application (such as a text editor). It would be rather annoying to double-click on a generated Makefile, for example, expecting it to be opened in a text editor, only to have the system try to "run" it instead. -- ES
