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From: PerlFAQ Server on 19 May 2010 18:00
This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq5.pod, which
comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community
to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete
perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .

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5.38: Why does Perl let me delete read-only files? Why does "-i" clobber protected files? Isn't this a bug in Perl?

This is elaborately and painstakingly described in the file-dir-perms
article in the "Far More Than You Ever Wanted To Know" collection in
http://www.cpan.org/misc/olddoc/FMTEYEWTK.tgz .

The executive summary: learn how your filesystem works. The permissions
on a file say what can happen to the data in that file. The permissions
on a directory say what can happen to the list of files in that
directory. If you delete a file, you're removing its name from the
directory (so the operation depends on the permissions of the directory,
not of the file). If you try to write to the file, the permissions of
the file govern whether you're allowed to.



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Working code is greatly appreciated.

If you'd like to help maintain the perlfaq, see the details in
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From: sln on 19 May 2010 18:27
On Wed, 19 May 2010 22:00:02 GMT, PerlFAQ Server <brian(a)theperlreview.com> wrote:

>This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq5.pod, which
>comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
>reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community
>to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete
>perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>5.38: Why does Perl let me delete read-only files? Why does "-i" clobber protected files? Isn't this a bug in Perl?
^^^^^^^^^^^
I think this needs a new title.
The answer of course is not that 'use strict/warnings' is off.

One would have to asume Perl is involved, its that 'let me' that
gets me.

Documentor's have always been about permission, same with
IT department head of 'security'.

I think Perl could enhance itself, maybe check permissions,
throw back a little "Are you sure?".

-sln
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