Re: chmod set-gid/set-uid behavior change issues

[Paul Eggert]

Eric Blake <address@hidden> writes:

> Should we document "chmod 00500 dir" as an explicit way to clear the bit,
> or just require a textual mode string?

Are you proposing that a directory's setgid bit be preserved if 4 or
fewer octal digits are used, and be set or cleared if 5 or more are
used?  That would be yet another way to handle the problem, I suppose.

Anyway, the current CVS coreutils documents the current CVS behavior,
which is that "chmod 0500 dir" clears the setgid bit, but "chmod 500
dir" preserves it.  If we want to change the behavior I plan to change
both code and documentation.