[NTLUG:Discuss] Listing file permissions in "chmod format"

[Robert Citek]

Have a look at stat.  For example:

$ touch foo
$ stat -c %a foo
644

Your script would then look something like this:

state=$(stat -c %a {file})
chmod a+w {file}
cp -p {file} {file}.{date}
sed -i (script) {file}
chmod $state {file}

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Regards,
- Robert

On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 11:37 PM, Leroy Tennison
<leroy_tennison at prodigy.net> wrote:
> The issue I'm facing is that I'm writing a script which will be used by
> others on hosts where I have no access or knowledge of the specifics.  I
> know I need to modify a file which I have seen is read-only (444) in one
> case.  What I want to do is:
>
> "capture" the current permissions in a form usable by chmod
> chmod a+w {file}
> cat {file} | sed (script) > {newfile}
> mv {file} {file}.{date}
> mv {newfile} {file}
> chmod (saved permissions) {file}
>
> "man ls" didn't provide any other program in the "See also" category.
>  Searching the web produces all kinds of references to ls and a reference to
> a Perl script.  I really don't want to use Perl because, again, I don't know
> much about the hosts the script will run on and don't want to assume that
> Perl is universally available.
>
> Any ideas or solutions would be appreciated.
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>