Re: Unexpected "setfacl: illegal acl entries"

Corinna Vinschen via Cygwin <[email protected]> Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:06:08 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.os.cygwin
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On Apr 20 01:35, Andrey Repin via Cygwin wrote:
> Greetings, All!
> 
> I'm receiving this unexpected message when trying to edit the directory ACL:
> 
> >> [C:\Programs\Cygwin\bin]$ setfacl -m user::rx .
> >> setfacl: illegal acl entries
> 
> But then I'm trying this
> 
> >> [C:\Programs\Cygwin\bin]$ setfacl -m user::r-x .
> 
> and it succeed.
> 
> To the all of my knowledge, ACL bits can be specified in any set or order.
> 
> Even the `setfacl -m user::wXr` command is correct.

Our setfacl doesn't support that yet. It was originally designed after
the description of the Solaris setfacl and the man page of that didn't
mention that the perms can be in any order.  Just reading the Linux man
page and it, too, doesn't mention that an arbitrary order is ok.  To my
knowledge there's also no actual standard defining the exact way how
setfacl operates.

Our setfacl doesn't support 'X' yet.  Actually I just read about it for
the first time :}

I add that to my TODO list, but don't expect anything for 3.6 at all,
and for 3.7 any time soon.

As always, patches to the cygwin-patches maling list are, of course,
welcome.


Corinna

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