Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu> writes:

> michael@cadilhac.name (Michaël Cadilhac) writes:
>
>   > Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu> writes:
>   > 
>   > > I think it would be good if set-file-modes would display the current
>   > > modes in symbolic form in the prompt for changing them.
>   > 
>   > Displaying the current modes is probably a good thing to do, but putting
>   > it in the prompt in order to be changed seems weird: when the modes are
>   > expressed in symbolic notation, they are used as a *mask* against the
>   > current modes, not a simple modification.

>   > Maybe a more intuitive thing we can do is to prompt the following :
>   > 
>   > "File modes, octal or symbolic (current: -r-xrw---):"
>
> This form is exactly what I had in mind. This format is familiar to
> people from "ls -l".  If users request something else, it can be changed
> later, but this should do for now.  Obviously, this is all IMHO...

Following that proposition, on which we agreed, here's a patch.