Unix already has "attributes"...

[Peter da Silva]

> Unix is not pristine about this either.  Why do you have to copy
> executables with "cp" rather than "cat" or "dd"?  They won't execute if
> you cat them...because the file permissions ("attributes" of the
> original) are specifically propagated by code in "cp", but not by
> "cat".

Yeh, executability should perhaps be handled by a magic number. Of course this
would break shell scripts, but that's been done before. Of course it IS easier
to type 'chmod +x file' than to reconstruct the header...
-- 
	Peter da Silva (the mad Australian werewolf)
		UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter
		MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076