GNU bug report logs - #8391
chmod setuid & setguid bits

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From: Bruno Haible <bruno <at> clisp.org>
To: ovasik <at> redhat.com
Cc: chris <at> computersalat.de, Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>, Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>, bug-gnulib <at> gnu.org, 8391 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#8391: chmod setuid & setguid bits
Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:27:34 +0100

Ondrej Vasik wrote:
> Therefore @ sign was chosen
> based on http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=8391#59 ...

The choice was pretty random:
   "we can choose some otherwise-unused character, such as '@'."

By the same argument one could also choose any of
  '%'
  '^'
  ','
  '.'
  '_'

> However, you are right that = is more intuitive (using exact mode, when
> specified as first character) - but using it for that will either change
> behaviour or confuse people for 'chmod =rwx DIR' usecase, if there are
> special bits on directory.

Then how about using "==" or ":=" to designate the assignment?

  chmod ==755 DIR
or
  chmod :=755 DIR

Both somehow remind assignment. The "==" choice also is similar with
  chmod 00755 DIR

Bruno

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