On Sun, 16 Nov 2003, Shachar Shemesh wrote: > Ron Artstein wrote: > > >What the FM > >needed was a line saying that in order to run a file it has to have > >execute permissions *and be on a device mounted with the exec flag*. > > Actually, I don't think it's the fine manual's fault at all. Mount is > mount, permissions are permissions.
and the 'noexec' flag for mount effects file permissions. you are arguing about semantics - but showing that something is semantically wrong, would not fix the usability problem - which is there, after all, as ron has demonstrated. > What I think should happen is that, when a partition is mounted > "noexec", it should do just that - no exec. Even if the filesystem > itself has the x flag on, it should not appear to be on. > > Had that been thesituation: > Try to run the program > Get "permission denied". > Do "ls" - see "-rw-rw-r--". > Do "chmod a+x a.out". i assume you want to say that 'chmod' should return an 'EPERM' error - and already here one will start suspecting something is wrong... > Try to run the program. > Get "permission denied" again. > Do "ls" - see "-rw-rw-r--". > Realize that something is preventing the "x" flag frombeing set. > Remeber "noexec" mount option. here is the problem: the user does not necessarily _know_ about this option. perhaps it was set there, by default, during the system installation process, and the user didn't know about it. the fact that you get a behaviour from the system, that looks "odd", can confuse anyone. even someone who once dealt with the 'noexec' flag. if the system and/or manual can give you a better explanation as to why 'permission is denied', they should do that. will it complicate the application and introduce new bugs? not if such operations were done via a library meant for that, and many applications used the same library to 'run programs' (for example), or to generate more elaborate error messages. -- guy "For world domination - press 1, or dial 0, and please hold, for the creator." -- nob o. dy -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haifa Linux Club Mailing List (http://www.haifux.org) To unsub send an empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
