The only sense I can make out of the 711 permission is that root wants to have an executable script in /root/bin, which other users should be able to execute.
Permissions 0711 on a directory don't make files inside it executable. Permissions 0711 on a directory mean group and world are allowed to change into that directory. But while not having the readable flag set, these are not allowed to look at directory content. Thus Permissions set: 0711 /root 0700 /root/bin 0755 /root/public_html Assume nobody.nobody: cd /root/public_html ls -> dir list cd /root/bin -> error - no permission cd /root ls -> error - no permission cd bin -> error - no permission this weakens security a little bit. root especially has to be suspicious about files in '/root'. They all mustn't be readable by group and world. This is problematic if root tends to be your working account -- but you know, you mustn't work being root... ;-) -- Thomas