Re: Strangeness when binary executable overwritten by text -- bug or feature?

[Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net>]

On 10/31/2018 10:31 AM, rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 31, 2018 10:14:40 AM Richard Owlett wrote:
> > Debian 9.1 with MATE installed from DVD set.
> >
> > Due a non-reproducible sequence of events, a binary executable was over
> > written by the contents of a man page in pure text format.
>
> Just to (maybe?) help with the proper focus, was this a human error or
> something that seemed to happen without human intervention?

As I replied to Reco, "Cannot reproduce detailed PEBKAC ;< "

> > For unknown
> > reason, the resulting file was tagged as executable.
> >
> > A custom MATE launcher pointed the corrupted file.
> > When the launcher icon was clicked there was no response whatsoever.
> > Including *NO ERROR MESSAGE*
> > Is this a bug or a feature?
> > If a feature, why?