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shellubuntuscriptingdash-shell

Shell script, directory is writable strange behavior

Here is -w option description from test's man page :

   -w FILE
          FILE exists and write permission is granted

And as an example is better than a thousand words :

$ ls -ld /home/maxime/.gvfs
dr-x------ 2 maxime maxime 0 Aug  5 22:53 /home/maxime/.gvfs
$ [ -w /home/maxime/.gvfs ] && echo "is writable" 
is writable
$ touch /home/maxime/.gvfs/file
touch: cannot touch `/home/maxime/.gvfs/file': No such file or directory

As you can see, the directory shouldn't be writable : only r and x flags are set. But, test says that I can write in it... First strange thing. Other one is what happens when I try to create a file in it : No such file or directory.

By the way, I'm running the above commands as user "maxime", and I'm using dash from Ubuntu 12.04.

Well, I'm a bit lost here, anyone got an explanation ?

Solution

  • .gvfs is a special file, in fact a virtual file system created by gvfs-fuse-daemon. You should not use it directly.