Inconsistent execute permission handling

[Martyn Klassen]

CVS seems to handle execute file permissions in a somewhat arbitrary way. If 
I add a shell script to the repository with the correct execute permissions, 
subsequently checked out versions have the correct execute permissions. 
However, if I forget to set execute permissions on shell script before 
adding it to the repository, the only way I have found to correctly get the 
execute permissions on a checked out version is set execute permissions on 
the file within the repository. cvs commit, even on a modified file, doesn't 
update the execute file permissions in the repository. However, cvs update 
will update the execute permissions, after a manual change in the 
repository, but only if the file contents has also been modified.
I understand that need for cvs modifying file permissions on checkout and 
commit, but the inconsistency of handling the execute permissions (updating, 
but only sometimes, committing only for new files) is somewhat 
disconcerting. Is there a specific rationale for this behaviour that I'm 
missing?

Personally, I would like CVS to keep track of the execute permissions during 
commit and update commands. My projects have numerous shell scripts, and 
recreating the correct execute permissions after each checkout is something 
I'd rather not have to do, but I also don't want to tell user's to manually 
edit the repository if they accidentally check in a script with the wrong 
permissions.

Martyn Klassen

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