[ubuntu-uk] rsync chgrp problem - advice, please?

[Neil Greenwood]

On 08/06/07, Tony Arnold <tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk> wrote:
> Neil,
>
> Neil Greenwood wrote:
>
> > I guess that the reason for the alternative is that some people can't
> > cope with the octal notation (or maybe the octal notation was added as
> > a shortcut later), but the chmod command is ancient (at least 25
> > years), so I'm not sure.
>
> My guess is that the octal notation came first and was in the original
> Berkeley Unix of so many years ago.

That was my first guess too. I wasn't sure whether it came from BSD or
AT&T though.

> The text notation also allows you to add and remove permissions, so for
> example: u+w will add write permission for the user and leave all the
> other bits of the permission as is. There is also - to take it away and
> = to set the permission.
>
> I think the man page to chmod explains it all.

Except for the history!

Yeah, relative changes (adding and removing), that makes sense, at
least if I could remember whether I want to use o or a... :-)

My wife says I have a good memory for useless things, but can't
remember anything useful, so obviously the text notation of chmod is
too useful.


Hwyl,
Neil.