UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I can't access the data in one of my directories (Mac OS X 10.6.2 "Snow Leopard", MacBook Pro if that matters). It has set its permissions such that it thinks it is a binary file for some reason.

I am not really sure how this happened, but is there a way to reset the first bit of the permissions string to "d" so that I can access the data again?

bash-3.2$ ls -l
-rwxr-xr-x 1 *** staff 398909 Sep 21 15:23 Thesis

Thanks!!

Don't think its possible

what does

Code:

$ file Thesis

return ?

Try this and try to go into the directory

Code:

ls -lt Thesis | cat -vte

Just in case the directory display is messed up by a file with a bad name.
From within the directory containing Thesis:

Code:

ls -la | sed -n l

(Directory list with special characters interpreted in octal notation)