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NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:40:17 -0500
From: "Joe Shead" <Joe@SheadProgramming.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps
References: <s5KdnY85luiJChHSnZ2dnUVZ_uGdnZ2d@earthlink.com> <jmiu3v$is7$1@speranza.aioe.org>
Subject: Re: fopen() of a read-only file for writing?
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:40:32 -0600
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Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.development.apps:462

I tested it, and it works. With a new non-root user, I got the EACCES that I
expected.

I'll just say, for anyone out there who wants to read my humble opinion,
that sometimes root wants to set things (like relatively stable C++ code, or
an initialization script) to read-only, so he knows that if he opens those
files to take a look, he can't easily accidentally modify them. If he wants
to change the file, he would actually like to be forced to do a chmod, make
the deliberate changes, and then chmod it back to read-only. I do that all
the time.

Thanks for the informed and comprehending help, though,

Joe

"Alan Curry" <pacman@kosh.dhis.org> wrote in message
news:jmiu3v$is7$1@speranza.aioe.org...
> In article <s5KdnY85luiJChHSnZ2dnUVZ_uGdnZ2d@earthlink.com>,
> Joe Shead <Joe@SheadProgramming.com> wrote:
> >
> >Hi,
> >
> >I have a file that has no write permissions on it, called readonly.txt.
> >I am logged on as root.
>
> Read and write permissions mean nothing to root.
>
> Execute permission does matter though. I suspect that's a holdover from
the
> time when it was common for $PATH to contain "." so there was more
potential
> to accidentally execute things.
>
> -- 
> Alan Curry