bug#10311: RFE: Give chmod a "-h" option as well

[Eric Blake]

On 12/16/2011 10:30 AM, Bob Proulx wrote:
> severity 10311 wishlist
> thanks
> 
> Jan Engelhardt wrote:
>> Give chmod a "-h" option as well
> 
> There are several important points concerning symlinks, the mode bits,
> chmod(1) and chmod(2).
> 
> * The mode bits of a symlink are not used.  The original Unix authors
>   ignored them and did not provide any way to change them.

That's true for Linux, but false for BSD (where the mode bits of a
symlink can allow restriction on dereferencing through the symlink).

> 
> * The mode bits of a symlink are set when they are created and never
>   modified nor used after that time.

Linux cannot modify symlink mode bits, but BSD can, precisely because
Linux does not honor symlink mode bits, but BSD does.  POSIX permits
both styles of operation; the new fchmodat() API is required to
understand AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW, but is allowed to reject it with
EOPNOTSUPP (compared to the more typical EINVAL for an invalid flag bit).

> 
> * Some operating systems do allow symlink mode bits to be set but that
>   feature is not wide spread.
> 
> Since the mode bits of a symlink are not in any way significant there
> isn't any urgent need to change them.

Since BSD chmod can set and usefully use symlink mode bits, and GNU
coreutils can target BSD, then yes, we should support chmod -h, using
fchmodat(), even if it is not our highest priority to implement it.

At one point I had a scratch patch in one of my local trees attempting
this conversion to add chmod -h; maybe I should revisit it and submit it
to the list.

-- 
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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