What I found puzzling when checking the file attributes for a specific folder on my laptop was that EVERY file had the A attribute, but no other attributes at all, just blank spaces before the filename! Since I need to know about the other attributes to determine which files were already marked with a read-only attribute so that I could change it/them so that would allow the files to be written to.

All of this is due to a message received after creating a FoxProW application and attempting to open it, which not possible due this error message: "Cannot write to a read-only file." Frankly, the message would be lots more helpful if it had told me WHICH file it could not write to. Right now, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Why would there not be other attributes associated with the files that already have just the A attribute?

I am wondering if Linux has a clever tool for working with file attributes. I am hoping that there might be a way to search all the files in a particular directory or folder for any files which are presently marked as "read-only".

I know that in order to be able to write to a file, there should be a "-R" attribute associated with it. My problem is trying to locate that particular file.

I hope this clarifies my difficulty and that there may be a way to search for files that presently have the "+R" (i.e. the read-only attribute) so that I can change it.

Any observations or suggestions would be appreciated.

You wrote the app so you should write it to report the file that it can't write.

This isn't a matter of attribute, but permission.
Files are readable, writable, and/or executable. 'read-only' isn't a permission (or an attribute), 'writable' is.

returns the permissions of files in a directory, in the first 10 characters. The 9th is user writability


You don't want to make every file writable, only the ones your app needs to write.

Thanks for the enlightenment and the suggestion as well. They were useful indeed. Terminology always has a way of creating misunderstandings, but that's the way it goes.

Using your offerings, I have been able to solve the problem and all is now good, thanks to your involvement. Many thanks.