Permissive permissions

[Ken Van Camp]

 >On three different Irises in three different groups (checked within the last
 >few minutes), / was world-writable (apparently shipped as such).  Not funny.

There was a problem on the 3000's with the tar command, whereby a 'tar x'
would always restore directories with mode 777 regardless of umask and
original permissions on the tape.  Use 'tar xp' instead.  I don't know if 
SGI fixed this, since I still use the 'xp' on the 3000's.  Anyway, it could
explain your situation if somebody (maybe even SGI) restored to that system
with a 'tar x'.  This is not a problem on the 4-D's.

..Ken Van Camp <kvancamp at pica.army.mil>