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Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2000 17:45:15 +0100
From: Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org>
To: Suresh Bhushan <sbhushan@smartshop.com>
Cc: doc@FreeBSD.org, surbush@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Answer to the point
Message-ID: <20000429174515.M706@kilt.nothing-going-on.org>
References: <38EE79F9.4C9AF506@smartshop.com>
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In-Reply-To: <38EE79F9.4C9AF506@smartshop.com>; from sbhushan@smartshop.com on Fri, Apr 07, 2000 at 05:14:49PM -0700
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On Fri, Apr 07, 2000 at 05:14:49PM -0700, Suresh Bhushan wrote:
> >Q: Why won't chmod change the permissions on symlinks? 
> >
> >A: You have to use either ``-H'' or ``-L'' together with the ``-R'' option to >make this work. See the chmod and symlink man pages for more info. 
> 
>  Man page for chmod gives
>      -H      If the -R option is specified, symbolic links on the
> command line
>              are followed.  (Symbolic links encountered in the tree
> traversal
>              are not followed.)
> 
>      -L      If the -R option is specified, all symbolic links are
> followed.
> 
>  hey, question is not for recursion or for follow-links.

The question is badly worded.  It's supposing that you have two files, foo,
and bar (which is a symlink to foo).  The question assumes you're asking
"When I 'chmod g-w bar', why does that not affect 'foo'".  The question
you're asking is "When I 'chmod g-w bar' nothing happens to 'bar'".

I've added some additional text to make this clearer.

N
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