File Permissions
 

I was checking the file permissions by using the ls -l command. It seems some files have permission as :


-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 35864 Jan 20 2009 ping*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 345764 Jan 21 2009 tcsh*
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 38936 Jan 21 2009 umount*
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 58324 Jan 21 2009 mount*

here, for the files ping,umount and mount the execute privilege for the user is set as "s".. i am un familiar with "s" in access privilileges.

Thanks in advance for the help.

setuid

Hi!
Please see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_permissions
alfredo

It is the setuid access right, to run the executable with the permissions of the owner of the executable (in this case root).

The s is showing that setuid is set.