> making the files executable is not acceptable.  Sooooo what do we do?
> Fix chmod/chown so that you can tell it what type of file to apply the

Point of information: gnu chmod, at least, has the X flag:
:  execute only if the file is a directory
:  or already has execute permission for some user (X),

As you've already stated, 
> small tools that do a simple task well and join them together to do
> what you want (mind you, some of the GNU tools seem to have lost this
> idea ;-) 

I don't know if the BSD chmod has this feature as well.
			_Mark_ <eichin@kitten.gen.ma.us>
			The Herd of Kittens