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Misnomer: "Binary References" (wrt file permissions) #129
Description
Type
GUI
Platform
Web
Description
Hello,
First, this is an awesome project. Nice work!
I had to raise an issue due to a point of pedantry: "Binary References" is a misnomer when referring to file permissions, e.g here: https://linuxcommandlibrary.com/tips#89400787
The numeric permissions are octal, not binary. Generally these would be called "octal permissions" or "octal notation" (e.g here). I've never heard them called "binary" or "binary references" in >25 years using *nix operating systems. I did a couple of web searches to check whether this was a common thing I wasn't aware of, and I don't see many other places calling them that (and lots of the ones that do are mirrors of your work)
I do totally see where the "binary" label comes from - this is an octal representation of 3 binary bits representing r/w/x permissions. But the representation '7' for rwx is octal, not binary - binary would be 111.
I feel pretty strongly that all references to "binary" permissions should be changed to "octal", and "binary references" should be changed to either "octal notation" or "octal permissions". Referring to them as "binary" is teaching people the wrong thing. A note saying that these octal values correspond to 3 binary bits might be a good idea, but otoh that might be too longwinded for this project.
I'd be happy to make this change and submit a PR if that's helpful. I considered just doing that but I figured I'd open an issue and discuss it first.
Steps to reproduce
- go to https://linuxcommandlibrary.com/tips#89400787
- observe text "binary references" and "The numbers are a binary representation of the rwx string"
- Try to put the value 7 into a binary calculator and watch it refuse because binary only contains 1 and 0 digits.
Activity
AntiSol commentedon Oct 17, 2026
Here's the relevant part of the chmod man page:
A numeric mode is from one to four octal digits (0-7), derived by adding up the bits with values 4, 2, and 1. Omitted digits are assumed to be leading zeros. The first digit selects the set user ID (4) and set group ID (2) and restricted deletion or sticky (1) attributes. The second digit selects permissions for the user who owns the file: read (4), write (2), and execute (1); the third selects permissions for other users in the file's group, with the same values; and the fourth for other users not in the file's group, with the same values.Perhaps it's worth extending the table you provide to a) include binary and/or b) include all 7 values, e.g:
mvanhorn commentedon Nov 5, 2026
The wording confuses the underlying permission bits with their octal representation.
Renames the heading to “octal notation” and explains that each digit sums read (4), write (2), and execute (1).
#135
Use octal wording in README and store description