File::chmod is a utility that allows you to bypass system calls or bit processing of a file's permissions. It overloads the chmod() function with its own that gets an octal mode, a symbolic mode, or an "ls" mode. If you wish not to overload chmod(), you can export symchmod() and lschmod(), which take, respectively, a symbolic mode and an "ls" mode. WWW: http://search.cpan.org/dist/File-chmod/