A lot of developers have no idea how UNIX permissions and mode bits work. I've witnessed this countless times, when a developer can't figure out why his code won't run, and just tells me to "chmod -R 777 /programdir/*"
I've had to sit a few developers down and teach them how to use commands like strace and truss to show them exactly which file they are trying to f_open and why it fails (usually trying to open a file in read/write mode that is not owned by them and 644 permissions).
Shouldn't this stuff be taught in basic CS101 courses?
Because CS101 should teach you about basic programming techniques, like how to open a file for reading or writing. In order to understand how to open a file, you need to have a basic understanding of how permissions work. In order to understand how permissions work, you need to understand how mode bits work.
This is really basic stuff, but I'm not surprised that most developers think it is beneath them. "That's sysadmin stuff; I don't need to learn that." These are usually the same developers that think chmod 777 is a fix.
I've had to sit a few developers down and teach them how to use commands like strace and truss to show them exactly which file they are trying to f_open and why it fails (usually trying to open a file in read/write mode that is not owned by them and 644 permissions).
Shouldn't this stuff be taught in basic CS101 courses?