ls: suppress "Permission denied" errors on NFS

NFS (on Linux 6.12 at least) was seen to return EACCES
from listxattr() for files without read access.
We started using listxattr() in coreutils 9.4.

* src/ls.c (gobble_file): Map EACCES from file_has_aclinfo()
to '?', rather than displaying the error.
* doc/coreutils.texi (ls invocation): Document the '?' flag.
* NEWS: Mention the bug fix.
Addresses https://bugs.gnu.org/74692

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 31093fb4fba9550dfdcf66c26e02176e2e079aed..0db68b307e6d4f6767625bafa00749b10ddb2955 100644 (file)
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -15,6 +15,12 @@ GNU coreutils NEWS                                    -*- outline -*-
   first and last characters, and single quotes in the string.
   [bug introduced in coreutils-8.26]
 
+  ls -l may now mark files with a '?' character after the mode bits
+  if it is unable to read alternate access method details, which may
+  happen on NFS with files without read permission.
+  Previously ls would have output "Permission denied" errors.
+  [bug introduced in coreutils-9.4]
+
   mv works again with macFUSE file systems.  Previously it would
   have exited with a "Function not implemented" error.
   [bug introduced in coreutils-8.28]

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index 585760741107eff92e7c4e121bb02e863f5f6334..ec58f6cf2a65dd947968b105212624f2d94206c2 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -8084,6 +8084,10 @@ with a security context, but no other alternate access method.
 A file with any other combination of alternate access methods
 is marked with a @samp{+} character.
 
+@command{ls} uses a @samp{?} character to indicate it is unable to determine
+whether alternate access methods apply to the file, which may happen for
+example with some NFS setups with files without read permission.
+
 @item -n
 @itemx --numeric-uid-gid
 @opindex -n

diff --git a/src/ls.c b/src/ls.c
index a42c7707ab58f823e7e0d5d61032027d94f687e2..50937071bfef8e0f88c59d36d0798f5e68cb9aef 100644 (file)
--- a/src/ls.c
+++ b/src/ls.c
@@ -199,6 +199,7 @@ static char const d_type_filetype[UCHAR_MAX + 1] =
 enum acl_type
   {
     ACL_T_NONE,
+    ACL_T_UNKNOWN,
     ACL_T_LSM_CONTEXT_ONLY,
     ACL_T_YES
   };
@@ -3518,14 +3519,20 @@ gobble_file (char const *name, enum filetype type, ino_t inode,
       int n = file_has_aclinfo_cache (full_name, f, &ai, aclinfo_flags);
       bool have_acl = 0 < n;
       bool have_scontext = !ai.scontext_err;
+
+      /* Let the user know via '?' if errno is EACCES, which can
+         happen with Linux kernel 6.12 on an NFS file system.
+         That's better than a longwinded diagnostic.  */
+      bool cannot_access_acl = n < 0 && errno == EACCES;
+
       f->acl_type = (!have_scontext && !have_acl
-                     ? ACL_T_NONE
+                     ? (cannot_access_acl ? ACL_T_UNKNOWN : ACL_T_NONE)
                      : (have_scontext && !have_acl
                         ? ACL_T_LSM_CONTEXT_ONLY
                         : ACL_T_YES));
       any_has_acl |= f->acl_type != ACL_T_NONE;
 
-      if (format == long_format && n < 0)
+      if (format == long_format && n < 0 && !cannot_access_acl)
         error (0, ai.u.err, "%s", quotef (full_name));
       else
         {
@@ -4302,6 +4309,8 @@ print_long_format (const struct fileinfo *f)
     modebuf[10] = '.';
   else if (f->acl_type == ACL_T_YES)
     modebuf[10] = '+';
+  else if (f->acl_type == ACL_T_UNKNOWN)
+    modebuf[10] = '?';
 
   switch (time_type)
     {