Snapshot of file permissions (script)

[Daniel Malcor]

I would like to generate a script to capture the current state of file ownership and permissions in a manner that I could restore the permissions in the event of a problem with a -R update. I think I can get 95% of the states, but there are some that cannot be reaserted in octal. I have found some clever things on the net, but nothing that would take and ls -l listing and turn it into chmod symbolic notation. Anyone done this before?

Thanks,

:-Dan

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

Actually there are no attributes that cannot be set using octal representation -- including sticky, setuid, and setgid bits. The same applies for numeric user/group ID's. I'd much rather have them than those mamby-pamby symbolic representations. Real UNIX guys always use the octal.


The attached Perl script will list filename, low-order 12-bits of mode, file type, uid, and gid for each argument supplied.

The exception to this rule is changing the mode of a symbolic link. The only way to chmod a symbolic link is via the undocumented lchmod() system call. If you search the Forums for lchmod, you should be able to find a small C program to do that.