GNU bug report logs -
#17330
files.el cd-absolute overcome false negative from file-executable-p
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Message #71 received at 17330 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):
> I prefer to solve the problem rather than ask users work around it.
So when can we reasonably expect a guarantee of no more false negatives
for users of 24.3 without having to inspect the fileio.c and files.el
and reinvent an undocumented workaround?
It will be great if you really can *solve* the problem, even just for
this one particular scenario. I already suggested a pathological
counterexample. Other sources mentioned do indicate that it is
impossible to solve it reliably in general. But perhaps it will be
enough in practice.
Only the positive outcome of file-executable-p is documented as "this
means you can access files in that directory". The negative outcome is
not explicitly documented as meaning you cannot, yet that is how callers
are interpreting it. So there is clearly scope for rewriting the
documentation and changing the callers' logic to match.
Asking the user whether the directory is supposed to be searchable after
all is not just a workaround. It may well be the only right thing to do.
In this case he was the person whose umask set the file modes on the
host system, and he can also inspect them on that system.
fgetacl showed no acl. I will try icacls but it may well be the same.
[I did take a look at fileio.c in trunk with a view to trying to build
it native and in cygwin for windows. Instead of simply downloading a
snapshot I ended up reading rather too much of a very long thread about
whether bzr should be replaced with git, and wondering whether they
aren't already coexisting as mirrors anyway. So right now I don't have
much progress to report on trying out candidate preferred solutions.]
This bug report was last modified 3 years and 210 days ago.
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Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham,
1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd,
1994-97 Ian Jackson.