tgp@sei.cmu.edu (Tod Pike) (10/16/90)
I've run into a strange problem that I've never seen before, so I thought I'd ask to see if anyone else has seen it. A user has a file (.Xdefaults) in their home directory, protected mode 640 (rw,r,none). When the user logs in and starts up X, it cannot read the file. If you do an ls, the file looks fine, but if you cat (or more) the file it gives a "file read error: permission denied". This is repeatable, and it happens on files with mode 640 ONLY. Here are more details: 1) The file can be opened without error, only READ operations get the permission denied error (EACESS). 2) Creating a new file in the directory fixes the problem. 3) If you chmod the file to 644, it's readable. If you chmod it back to 640, it stays readable. 4) The file server is a Sun 4/490 running SunOS 4.1. The problem occurs on clients ranging from 3/60's running 4.0.3 to DecStations to Sparcs, to.....whatever. Points 2 and 3 indicate to me at least that the problem may be in the client cache, but 4 indicates that the problem may be rooted in the server. Perhaps the server is giving the client bad information? Please send information directly to me....I will summarize to the net if there is enough interest. Thanks in advance. Tod Pike -- Internet: tgp@sei.cmu.edu Mail: Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute Pittsburgh, PA. 15213-3980