* src/dired.c: Add comment and code explaining magic number.

1 files changed, 5 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/src/dired.c b/src/dired.c
index ce2a3d105e5..96063680d4d 100644
--- a/src/dired.c
+++ b/src/dired.c
@@ -937,7 +937,11 @@ so last access time will always be midnight of that day.  */)
   Lisp_Object dirname;
   struct stat sdir;
 #endif /* BSD4_2 */
-  char modes[12];
+
+  /* An array to hold the mode string generated by filemodestring,
+     including its terminating space and null byte.  */
+  char modes[sizeof "-rwxr-xr-x "];
+
   Lisp_Object handler;
   struct gcpro gcpro1;
   char *uname = NULL, *gname = NULL;