*BSD News Article 73263


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From: j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: changind file permissions for a symbolic link
Date: 9 Jul 1996 21:17:47 GMT
Organization: Private BSD site, Dresden
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Syntax <syntax@eramp.net> wrote:

> If I understand symbolic links correctly they take on the mode of the
> original file when they are created and can not be changed after that.
> Therefor, in order to set your /tmp link you will need to remove the
> link and recreate it after setting the correct permissions on /usr/tmp.

That's wrong.  It's only that they always inherit the features of
their parent directory (owner, group, timestamps, permissions).  All
of these features are meaningless however (mostly -- only directories
with the `sticky' bit set are tricky), since the permissions of the
resource the link is pointing to are in effect when the link is being
followed.

-- 
cheers, J"org

joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)