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Sticky bit on files?

 
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# 1  
Old 03-24-2011
Sticky bit on files?
I am a new Linux user, just successfully passed another exam on unixacademy.com (congratulate me Smilie but there was a question I'm uncomfortable with. I mean, I'm not sure how it works and have no idea how to verify it.
What effect sticky bit has on files? I know how it works on directories, but its effect on files is unclear to me. I tried searching web, but I found different, contradicting posts for various Linux/Unix clones. Some posts say it is not used, ignored some say it has an effect... Thanks
# 2  
Old 03-24-2011
If it does anything at all, it's certainly not officially documented. (grepped every file in /usr/src/linux/Documentation for "sticky") So I'd be inclined to say it doesn't.
# 3  
Old 03-24-2011
From the chmod man page:
Quote:
STICKY FILES
On older Unix systems, the sticky bit caused executable files to be hoarded in swap space. This feature is not useful on modern VM systems, and the Linux kernel ignores the sticky bit on files. Other kernels may use the sticky bit on files for system-defined purposes. On some systems, only the superuser can set the sticky bit on files.
# 4  
Old 03-30-2011
Is there a simple way to find, where this "sticky bit" functionality is located within kernel sources? Linux is famous to be "open source" so in a case I want to investigate this issue first hand, how can I find a particular piece of kernel (module, library?) that deals with this functionality. I do know C language well enough to read and compile simple programs.
# 5  
Old 03-31-2011
I learned the sticky bit is set so that only a file could not be deleted. I believe you would set it on a file like
Code:
 sudo chmod 1755 filename

With the 1 being the sticky bit.
# 6  
Old 03-31-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by newlinuxuser1
Is there a simple way to find, where this "sticky bit" functionality is located within kernel sources? Linux is famous to be "open source" so in a case I want to investigate this issue first hand, how can I find a particular piece of kernel (module, library?) that deals with this functionality.
Download a kernel tarball from kernel.org , extract it somewhere, and start grepping. I did enough looking to figure out that it's not called "sticky" inside the kernel.
# 7  
Old 03-31-2011
See my article on file permissions here.
Quote:
The constant in the C header files for this bit is S_ISVTX. The svtx stands for save text and this reveals the original purpose of the bit.
This User Gave Thanks to Perderabo For This Post:
newlinuxuser1
 
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