Understanding directory permissions in UNIX
If I have r-- on a directory, I receive errors on attempting cd directory or touch directory/newfile, as expected. But if I run ls directory -- well, I don't get an error, but no files are listed, even if I know there are files that I own and/or have rights to within the directory. So, ls has run successfully but with no data to standard output. Why not?


If you just ls directory then the "files" inside directory should list but if you use ls -l which calls stat(2) the operation will silently fail as stat requires a full searchable path to the filesystem object.


  If I have -w- on a directory, I receive errors on cd and ls, as expected. But if I try to create a new file - touch directory/newfile - I also get an error. Why?


Once again touch calls open(2) system call which requires a full searchable path (all directories in the path are executable/searchable) or the operation will fail.