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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-04T14:57:52+00:00

My Cygwin SVN client changed behavior regarding Windows ACL between version 1.6.17 and 1.7.4.

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My Cygwin SVN client changed behavior regarding Windows ACL between version 1.6.17 and 1.7.4.

[ UPDATE: SVN 1.7.4 and 1.6.17 have the same behaviour actually. The problem lies elsewhere. What I didn’t get is the point where it stopped working, probably a Cygwin update. ]

[ UPDATE: The Cygwin-built SVN client actually honors the svn:executable keyword by setting the executable ACL bit for the current user. The mention “has not effect under Windows” in the SVN book has to be taken with caution. ]

Running a check-out with 1.7.4 sets all extracted files to read-only for the current user. For instance, and that’s what is annoying in my specific case, it does not set the execute flag for batches. In the file properties, the Security tab ticks Read for Everyone, and Read/Write for the current user.

Running a check-out with 1.6.17 does not show this behavior. Files are checked out with user-friendly rights, and batches can be executed. In the file properties, the Security tab ticks Read & execute/Read for Everyone, and Modify/Read & execute/Read/Write for the current user, which is what I’d expect from a check-out. That check-out is part of a scripted process, so the environment is the same in both test scenarii.

I found no mention of that behavior in svn tickets, and had no luck searching. Most of the results relate to server-side configuration.

I’m no ACL/NTFS expert, I did read the Cygwin posix/windows article at http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/ntsec.html, but that did not clarify the difference.

  • I tried the svn:executable keyword, but as expected this has no effect under Windows.
  • The same difference happens under Windows 7 or under XP.
  • I noted that TortoiseSVN 1.7.6 (built against “native” SVN 1.7.4) runs the check-out correctly.
  • I have the default fresh-install /etc/fstab, which is empty, and no /etc/fstab.d config.

It’s not that I’m unhappy with 1.6.17, but some of the features in 1.7.4 are interesting.

How do I solve that weird access rights issue?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Ultimately, this was solved by find’ing and chmod’ing files deemed executable:

    sh - c "find %MYDIR% -name '*.bat *.sh *.exe *.com *.cmd' -exec chmod u+x {} \;"

    What I certainly missed because of a lack of time to investigate is that svn:executable should actually be handled by the Cygwin-built SVN to add the correct permission flag. I’ll have to check that soon.

    [ UPDATE: The Cygwin-built SVN client honors svn:executable, so this is the way to solve the issue. ]

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