Re: [TCLUG:4608] Thanks for installfest & Pine file permisions:

[Randy Maas <randym@acm.org>]

At 02:24 PM 3/9/99 -0600, you wrote:
>I recently reinstalled pine-4.04-2.src.rpm. After creating a .pinerc
>within a user account, I get "Mailbox vulnerable - must have 1777
>protection".

> What is the fourth number in this scenario?

A form of the sticky bit.  It is a legendary (and mythical) design feature.
 In this case it means that the security system should take a more
conservative approach than normally. 

>I can't see chmod 1777 resulting in anything but a security compromise.

It is anything but.  For directories it means that no one but the owner can
delete the files in the directory

(On files it is typically obsolete.  It was used with the cache manager to
indicate the file, once read into memory, was typically reused, and should
be kept in memory longer than most other things.)

Randy Maas
randym@acm.org