KDE and the executable bit

[David Jarvie]

On Monday 28 January 2008 11:43, Andras Mantia wrote:
> On Monday 28 January 2008, David Faure wrote:
>> What should happen if you give +x to a JPG file for instance?
>
> Ok, you have a point, but you know, there are file managers in the shell
> (since ages), which execute JPG's on click/enter. ;)
>  So it means that if a mimetype (extension) can be executable and text,
> like in the case of script, we must add that it inherits
> application/x-executable, right? And in such case if the exec bit is
> set, it will run the script, if it is not, it will open in the
> associated aplication, right?

David's point about the fact that some file systems (e.g. FAT) always set
the executable bit must be borne in mind. It isn't correct to
automatically assume a text file is executable just because the executable
bit is set. At the very least the filesystem type needs to be ascertained
first.

But I think given the lack of feedback and the possibility of accidentally
clicking on an executable (if single click is enabled), there should at
least be a prompt first before executing anything as the default action.
I'd prefer to see running a file being a context menu option, not a
default action.

-- 
David Jarvie.
KAlarm author & maintainer.
http://www.astrojar.org.uk/kalarm