http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Filesystem_permissions#Packed_permission_b... Clearly, ext3 has moved beyond "packed permission bits" if that ever was a production concept. [david@hexaflexagon scrabble]$ touch BLOP [david@hexaflexagon scrabble]$ ls -l BLOP -rw-r--r-- 1 david david 0 Jun 3 04:11 BLOP [david@hexaflexagon scrabble]$ chmod o+x BLOP [david@hexaflexagon scrabble]$ ls -l BLOP -rw-r--r-x 1 david david 0 Jun 3 04:11 BLOP [david@hexaflexagon scrabble]$ Under packed permissions, granting for OTHERS would grant for USER and GROUP too. Here's my question: When did packed permissions stop being used, if they ever were? Does anyone else remember "chmod o+w foo" silently implying "chmod ugo+w foo" and if so how log ago was that? -- "I'm not giving in an inch to fear" --David Crosby