To avoid having to remember to do chmod u+x to set FileModes after saving a perl or sh or bash script, put something like this (you might want to add regexes for other interpreters) in your startup file: ; Check for shebang magic in file after save, make executable if found. (setq my-shebang-patterns (list "^#!/usr/.*/perl\\(\\( \\)\\|\\( .+ \\)\\)-w *.*" "^#!/usr/.*/sh" "^#!/usr/.*/bash" "^#!/bin