C6 : “extra” File Access Permission ?

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CentOS 3 Comments

In C5.10 when I do a “ls -al” (or .l as I am lazy) I see:-

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 4 2013 alias

In C6.5 (2.6.32-431.23.3.el6.x86_64) I see:-

drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Sep 9 04:26 conf drwxrwxrwt. 4 root root 4096 Sep 21 03:39 tmp drwxr-xr-x. 9 root root 4096 Sep 9 04:26 spool lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 10 Sep 8 21:45 mail -> spool/mail

I have never noticed the “extra dot” before.

QUESTION

What does the extra dot (.) signify ?

Thank you,

Paul

(Supporting Yes for Scotland)

3 thoughts on - C6 : “extra” File Access Permission ?

  • The extra dot means selinux ACL. If you find a +, it’s general ACL;
    space means no aditional Access Control List.

  • Hi Marcelo,

    Thank you for your explanation.

    It is strange – all my C6 servers, except the latest, do not have the extra dot.

    On the server that has the extra dot, SELINUX is disabled (sestatus &
    getenforce). Newly created file do not have the dot, but the files created by the install do.

    Best wishes,

    Paul. England, EU.

    Learning until I die or experience dementia. Meanwhile …… CentOS, Exim, Apache, Libre Office are the future. Micro$oft is the past.

  • Hi Paul,

    The extra dot is an ls “feature”. Compare their versions…

    The dot just means the file is labeled, not that the label will be enforced. If you disable selinux, you can go without a label and newly created files won’t inherit labels…