Re: S_ARCH1 / S_ARCH2 / strmode(3)

[<tlaronde%kergis.com@localhost>]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2025 at 12:30:49PM -0400, Jan Schaumann wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Our ls(1) still supports (via strmode(3)) and
> documents files of types
> 
> #define _S_ARCH1  0200000               /* Archive state 1, ls -l shows 'a' */
> #define _S_ARCH2  0400000               /* Archive state 2, ls -l shows 'A' */
> 
> In over 25 years of using Unix systems day in, day
> out, I have never encountered a file with an archive
> state set.
> 
> OpenBSD, FreeBSD, macOS, and Linux don't seem to
> support this file type.
> 
> Grepping through the entire NetBSD source tree, I only
> see S_ARCH1 and S_ARCH1 defined and used in sys/stat.h
> and strmode.c -- that is, I can't find anything
> anywhere actually setting this flag.
> 
> (They were added in sys/sys/stat.h, r1.38,
> lib/libc/string/strmode.c r1.9. back in 1999.)
> 
> Is this actually useful, or is this a remnant from who
> knows when that nowadays could be removed?
> 

Wasn't these supposed to support MS filesystems? Is Samba relying on
it?
-- 
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ kergis +dot+ com>
                     http://www.kergis.com/
                    http://kertex.kergis.com/
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