what means a dot after the file permission ?

marozsas · 03-21-2010, 07:18 PM

Hi guys !

What means a dot after a file permission in a long listing (ls -l ) ?
The FS is a ext3, mounted without acl support.

Code:

root@quadbit:~# ls -la /media/sdf5
total 28
drwxr-xr-x   4 root   root    4096 2009-06-13 17:31 .
drwxr-xr-x  15 root   root    4096 2010-03-21 21:12 ..
drwx------   2 root   root   16384 2009-06-13 17:27 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x.  3 miguel miguel  4096 2009-06-17 19:26 miguel
root@quadbit:~# mount | grep /media/sdf5
/dev/mapper/truecrypt1 on /media/sdf5 type ext3 (rw)
root@quadbit:~#

[

]

Tinkster · 03-21-2010, 07:46 PM

Read this - may help:
http://books.huihoo.org/slackware-li...-filesystem-ea

divyashree · 03-22-2010, 12:10 AM

. means the current directory in which you are .
.. means one directory up from the current directory

You can check by

Quote:

ls .

-> show the content of current directory

Quote:

cd ..

-> it will go to the previous directory or one dir up .

Tinkster · 03-22-2010, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by divyashree

. means the current directory in which you are .
.. means one directory up from the current directory

You can check by
-> show the content of current directory

-> it will go to the previous directory or one dir up .

That's all correct but has nothing to do with his question ...

Code:

drwxr-xr-x.  3 miguel miguel  4096 2009-06-17 19:26 miguel
          ^he's talking about that dot.

Cheers,
Tink

hardcorelinux · 03-22-2010, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by divyashree

. means the current directory in which you are .
.. means one directory up from the current directory

You can check by
-> show the content of current directory

-> it will go to the previous directory or one dir up .

Nope i thing he is asking about folowing line not . and .. of first two line.

drwxr-xr-x. 3 miguel miguel 4096 2009-06-17 19:26 miguel

saagar · 03-22-2010, 01:36 AM

I have never seen a dot after the file permissions..thats an info for me too..

divyashree · 03-22-2010, 02:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by divyashree

. means the current directory in which you are .
.. means one directory up from the current directory

You can check by
-> show the content of current directory

-> it will go to the previous directory or one dir up .

I am sorry for my misunderstandings ,but there is no such . in file permission bit .

zhjim · 03-22-2010, 03:25 AM

Just to get this thread whole on its own.
I read the link Tinkster provided but this did not really answer the question about the dot. I could assume that the dot is an indicator that this file has extended attributes.. Right?

Just like a + shows files that have ACL's on them

Code:

someone@somewhere:~$ ls /var/www -lh
total 72K
-rw-rwxr--+  1 root     root      330 2009-08-04 15:09 base64.php
-rw-rw-r--+  1 www-data www-data   93 2010-01-04 16:25 blot.php

Code:

someone@somewhere:~$ getfacl /var/www/base64.php
getfacl: Removing leading '/' from absolute path names
# file: var/www/base64.php
# owner: root
# group: root
user::rw-
user:someone:rwx
group::r--
mask::rwx
other::r--

marozsas · 03-22-2010, 06:43 AM

@ Tinkster: Thank you ! You're right. It is indeed, extended attributes.
@ divyashree: NO, I am talking about the dot AFTER the regular file permission field. Thanks for the answer anyway.
@ saagar: yes, I never see such dot. I already have seen a '+' (ACL), but not a '.' And as Tinkster has pointed it is a extended attribute. In this case I can get its value by "getfattr --dump". Cool !
@ zhjim: thanks for the summary. Yes, it is similar to ACL notation. You can get all extended attributes by "getfattr --dump"

thanks for all !

PS: I would like to add that extended attribute was not set by my-self, but by one of several exotic file manager I am trying with.

ikisham · 04-05-2012, 09:20 AM

I'm not sure about this.

Code:

grub.d]# ls -l
total 64
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 7528 Mar 15 11:40 00_header
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 8872 Mar 15 11:40 10_linux
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 9552 Mar 15 11:40 20_linux_xen
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 9339 Mar 15 11:40 30_os-prober
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  691 Apr  5 10:55 39_puppy
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  301 Mar 28 16:49 40_custom
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root   95 Mar 15 11:40 41_custom
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 1259 Mar 15 11:40 90_persistent
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  483 Mar 15 11:40 README

Note that 39_puppy has no dot. It was created by me (I don't remember now if with the file-manager or from console). But

Code:

grub.d]# lsattr *
-------------e- 00_header
-------------e- 10_linux
-------------e- 20_linux_xen
-------------e- 30_os-prober
-------------e- 39_puppy
-------------e- 40_custom
-------------e- 41_custom
-------------e- 90_persistent
-------------e- README

For lsattr the attributes are the same.

Now, answering my own doubt what may have happened is that I had selinux enabled (default in Fedora) and then I disabled it. So files that have been indexed by selinux may have had the dot and the ones created afterwards don't have them. Just a guess.

vmpanzer · 07-26-2012, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikisham

Now, answering my own doubt what may have happened is that I had selinux enabled (default in Fedora) and then I disabled it. So files that have been indexed by selinux may have had the dot and the ones created afterwards don't have them. Just a guess.

Well, your guess is good. The dot after file permissions in 'ls' long output denotes that the file in question has a SELinux security context, no matter if SELinux is enabled or not:

Code:

[root@backup /]# sestatus
SELinux status:                 disabled
[root@backup /]# ls -ald /lib
dr-xr-xr-x. 8 root root 4096 Feb 14 16:45 /lib
[root@backup /]# ls -Zd /lib
dr-xr-xr-x. root root system_u:object_r:lib_t:s0       /lib
[root@backup /]# 
[root@backup /]# ls -ald /srv
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4096 May  8 15:37 /srv
[root@backup /]# ls -Zd /srv
drwxr-xr-x root root ?                                /srv
[root@backup /]#