Sticky bit?

Curt J. Sampson curt at cynic.wimsey.bc.ca
Mon Mar 25 19:25:10 AEST 1991


In article <1991Mar25.012637.10647 at mp.cs.niu.edu>
rickert at mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:

>  Today the sticky bit is often used on public directories (such as /tmp) with
> the meaning that only the owner of a file can 'rm' that file.
> 
>  The original meaning applied to executables.  It meant that the executable
> was to remain always in memory, even when not in use.

Keep in mind that the newer meanings of the sticky bit, such as
making a directory "append-only," may not apply to many UNIX systems.
My SCO Xenix 2.3.2 will not recognise a sticky bit on a directory.
On my 286 system its only use is to keep text segments in the swap
space.  On the 386 versions, since they use virtual memory, not
even that applies.

cjs
-- 
                        | "It is actually a feature of UUCP that the map of
curt at cynic.uucp         | all systems in the network is not known anywhere."
curt at cynic.wimsey.bc.ca |    --Berkeley Mail Reference Manual (Kurt Schoens)



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