Subject: Re: bug#39613: stat(1) shouldn't call permissions "Access..."

From: Pádraig Brady <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2020 11:27:46 +0000

On 15/02/2020 02:15, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson wrote:
> (info "(coreutils) stat invocation") says,
>     • %a - Access rights in octal (note ‘#’ and ‘0’ printf flags)
>     • %A - Access rights in human readable form

Fair enough, as one might be confused that ACL info may be output.
This may be done in future, but until such time we can use
more accurate terminology.

I'll apply the attached later.
Marking this as done.

thanks,
Pádraig
>From 61c49d369369773b45beeac659fa32b6f481e8be Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?P=C3=A1draig=20Brady?= <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2020 11:16:35 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] doc: clarify that '%a' stat format outputs mode bits

* src/stat.c (usage): Mention permission bits rather than
"access" so there is no confusion with ACLs etc.
Also indicate we output the file type with '%A'.
* doc/coreutils.texi (stat invocation): Likewise.
Also indicate '%A' is similar to `ls -ld` output.
Addresses https://bugs.gnu.org/39613
---
 doc/coreutils.texi | 4 ++--
 src/stat.c         | 4 ++--
 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index cb238f087..24e424c54 100644
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -12438,8 +12438,8 @@ The valid @var{format} directives for files with @option{--format} and
 @option{--printf} are:
 
 @itemize @bullet
-@item %a - Access rights in octal (note @samp{#} and @samp{0} printf flags)
-@item %A - Access rights in human readable form
+@item %a - Permission bits in octal (note @samp{#} and @samp{0} printf flags)
+@item %A - Permission bits in symbolic form (similar to @command{ls -ld})
 @item %b - Number of blocks allocated (see @samp{%B})
 @item %B - The size in bytes of each block reported by @samp{%b}
 @item %C - The SELinux security context of a file, if available
diff --git a/src/stat.c b/src/stat.c
index 1fd83ee67..63f49d09e 100644
--- a/src/stat.c
+++ b/src/stat.c
@@ -1714,8 +1714,8 @@ The --cached MODE argument can be; always, never, or default.\n\
       fputs (_("\n\
 The valid format sequences for files (without --file-system):\n\
 \n\
-  %a   access rights in octal (note '#' and '0' printf flags)\n\
-  %A   access rights in human readable form\n\
+  %a   permission bits in octal (note '#' and '0' printf flags)\n\
+  %A   permission bits and file type in human readable form\n\
   %b   number of blocks allocated (see %B)\n\
   %B   the size in bytes of each block reported by %b\n\
   %C   SELinux security context string\n\
-- 
2.24.1