On Sun, 2011-06-05 at 17:43 +0300, Nikos Chantziaras wrote: > Gentoo users tend to be technically adept, so I'll ask the question here: > > Why are *.so files set as executables? I noticed that they keep working > if I do a "chmod a-x" on them.
Well, they are "executables" in that they are object code that are (loaded and) executed. In the olden days (pre libc6?) believe it was required form them to be both executable and by whoever wanted to run (load) them. It's probably still a requirement for other *nix systems.
