Re: [PATCH] cp, mv: do preserve extended attributes even for read-only source files

[Jim Meyering]

Ondřej Vašík wrote:
> Ah, I knew I forgot to do something :). Thanks for spotting this.
>
> Restoring to dest_mode & ~omitted_permissions done in attached patch,
> dropped redirections from the test as well. Additionally - I modified
> the copy.c patch a bit - failure of mode change now doesn't mean that I
> don't try to preserve extended attributes (as it still could pass).
> Pádraig is right that it looks like some kind of bug in libattr and
> fsetxattr() function, as the descriptor should be writable, anyway this
> should workaround it - at least until they'll fix/change it or other way
> of solution will be found.
> Ok with passing to 7.7, although with such small impact and relatively
> low danger, it could maybe included to 7.6 (if more snapshots will be
> before real release).

Thanks for the update.
However, I'd rather avoid that permission-relaxing code completely.
Not only does it appear to constitute a security problem when run by
root, but it may also fail, when copying, as non-priveleged, to a file
that is writable but owned by someone else.