[Tfug] Mac OSX permission problem...

[Jim Secan]

Odd.  Maybe this is just a 10.5 problem, because I tried a test on a 10.4
system, and "chmod -R g+w *" did just what I expected - added write
permissions for group to all directories and files in and below the
directory I was in.  I didn't try chown.  The explanation of -R on both
man pages is a bit on the odd side, perhaps it was written in Cantonese
and translated into English by an  ubergeek Swede.  The desciption of ACL
access/usage on the chmod man page isn't that great either.

Jim

Jim March wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 7:18 AM, Zack Williams <zdwzdw at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I helped a friend set up his new iMac (Intel based, OS 10.5.2).  We
>>> did a network between that and his old critter (also doing OSX).  I
>>> managed to share his stuff from the old box with full
>>> write-permissions, but once I copied his stuff to the new rig he still
>>> had read-only permissions on it...and I could *not* figure out how to
>>> reset them.
>>>
>>> chmod and chown don't accept the same "-R" switch to allow resetting a
>>> whole directory tree (as in their /home/username dir).  Nothing in the
>>> GUI supported permission resetting.  It was a nightmare.
>>
>> Are you elevating to root (via sudo) when you run chmod/chown? By
>> default, home folders in OS X are owned by the user, with the group
>> "staff".
>>
>> In 10.5, filesystem ACL's are turned on by default, which augment
>> standard POSIX permissions, which may be getting in the way.  Run "ls
>> -le" to see the ACL's. In 10.5 client the only common way to
>> accidentally apply ACL's to any folder is via personal file sharing,
>> which it sounds like you might have done.
>>
>> The GUI interface for permissions is in the Finder, File-> Get Info...
>>  See the "Sharings and Permissions" section which may be collapsed.
>> You can use the gear menu in that section to recursively apply
>> permissions once you've changed them.
>>
>> - Zack
>
> Yes, I'm doing chown/chmod with sudo.  Doesn't help.
>
> "man chown" and "man chmod" list a different function for the -R
> switch than the Linux "recursive" usage.  I forget what it was, but
> basically I could see no way of doing recursive re-permissions unless
> I did some very funky bash stuff involving maybe find piped to
> chown/chmod?
>
> I read something on Apple's own site on the ACLs and tried a command
> to blow them away.  That same Apple page said they could be rebuilt
> through a tool on the original install CD (which I have).  But
> literally the only thing the original install CD can do is a
> re-install of the OS, which didn't help.
>
> Sigh.
>
> The GUI tool under "get info" will not reset the permissions.  In
> Ubuntu I sometimes do a "sudo nautilus" and access GUI permissions
> tools as root that way - is there any sort of equivelent?
>
> Failing that, is there a sure-fire terminal command that will reset
> the permissions at /home/username/Deskop/"everything from there down"
> to the user's permissions?!?
>
> Jim
>
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