unix quirks (chmod 000 dir)

[argv at ucb-vax.ARPA]

    >>% mkdir foo
    >>% chmod 000 foo
    >>% cd foo
    >>foo: no such file or directory
    >>% WHAT?
    >>no match.
    
    >I assume you are surprised by by the fact that shutting off the
    >permissions to a directory you own makes it impossible for you
    >to change to it. That's not a quirk, that's a bona-fide feature.
    >What else could turning off your own permissions mean? Why have
    >them? I personally find this a real plus under UNIX in general,
    >it's *nice* to be able to protect me from me as usually my files
    >are in the gravest danger from *me*.
    
   
You don't seem to understand: it shouldn't say: "no such file or directory",
it should say: "Permission denied."  The example, was just that, an example.
This "bug" appears all the time whenever the permission is denied, it comes
up with the wrong error message! Try to cd into a path that you never had
any problems with and it says that it doesn't even EXIST. Then you panic and
call the system administrator and request a back up recovery and spend a
lot of time and effort (sometimes even money) to get a directory replaced
that never even went away. I just want the correct error message. Is this
clear now?


						Dan Heller (aka Frank)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
		UCSC Computing Center Consultant
      (Looking for a UNIX/C hacking Job - nudge nudge wink wink)

UUCP:    ucbvax!ucscc!argv  {ihnp4,sun,cbosgd,decwrl}!qubix!ucscc!argv
ARPA:    argv%ucscc.uucp at ucb-vax.arpa
CSnet:   c.argv at ucsc.csnet

                   (say no more, say no more)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------