Feature #10663: Consider adding support for String input to File. methods

• Status: Open
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -

[shevegen (Robert A. Heiler)]

Hi,

Consider a file called 'test.rb'

We can change its permission with File.chmod like so:

File.chmod 444,'test.rb'

This should make it readable (world, group, owner)

and I believe it would be synonymous to

chmod +r test.rb

on the commandline.

In Ruby, this here does not work:

File.chmod '+r','test.rb'
TypeError: no implicit conversion of String into Integer

Is there a reason why it must be an Integer? If Strings would
be allowed then we could also use those abbreviations like
'+r' just as we can with the commandline utility chmod.

[normalperson (Eric Wong)]

Try FileUtils.chmod instead. FileUtils is where the higher-level
stuff goes, I think.

[duerst (Martin Dürst)]

Robert A. Heiler wrote:

File.chmod 444,'test.rb'

I think this should be
File.chmod 0444,'test.rb'

At least that's what the documentation says.

In Ruby, this here does not work:

File.chmod '+r','test.rb'

Eric Wong wrote:

Try FileUtils.chmod instead. FileUtils is where the higher-level
stuff goes, I think.

In general, this is true. But I think it's not a good idea to have two methods with the same functionality but slightly different sets of accepted parameters.