On Mon, 2012-03-05 at 21:20 +0100, Bruno Haible wrote: > Paul Eggert wrote: > > this use of "+" does not conflict with input usages like > > "chmod +x foo". > > It's because this use of '+' is easy to remember. > "chmod +x" means "add execution permissions". > "chmod -x" means "remove execution permissions". > > You want a symbol for "assign exact permissions". > IMO the equals sign is a more well-known symbol for assignment than '@'. > So, how about a notation > chmod =755 > or > chmod =rw-r--r--
The only concern I have with equal sign (which was proposed by Paul as the first candidate as well - see http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=8391#50 ) is the confusion with the equal sign in the symbolic mode specification - this one should be for combination with numeric octal mode. Therefore @ sign was chosen based on http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=8391#59 ... However, you are right that = is more intuitive (using exact mode, when specified as first character) - but using it for that will either change behaviour or confuse people for 'chmod =rwx DIR' usecase, if there are special bits on directory. Greetings, Ondrej
