12.5 ACL Support in Applications
ACLs can be used to implement very complex permission scenarios
that meet the requirements of modern applications. The traditional
permission concept and ACLs can be combined in a smart manner. The
basic file commands (cp, mv,
ls, etc.) support ACLs, as do Samba and
Konqueror.
Unfortunately, many editors and file managers still lack ACL
support. When copying files with Emacs, for instance, the ACLs of
these files are lost. When modifying files with an editor, the ACLs
of files are sometimes preserved and sometimes not, depending on the
backup mode of the editor used. If the editor writes the changes to
the original file, the access ACL is preserved. If the editor saves
the updated contents to a new file that is subsequently renamed to
the old filename, the ACLs may be lost, unless the editor supports
ACLs. Except for the star archiver, there are currently no backup
applications that preserve ACLs.