  | | | Files & permissions | Files & permissions 2004-07-21 - By Andreas Lund
Back Wed, 21 Jul 2004 15:51:31 +0100, "Harry Hambi" <harry.hambi@(protected)> wrote: > Understand....lets say there's only one file I wish only read access > to,I don't want them logging on as me, can I create a separate log on, & > give them read only access to this one file?.
You can do this in a number of ways, but the simplest (if there are only the two of you) is to grant "everyone" read access to the file. Incidently, this is usually the default when you create a file:
[root@(protected) root]# touch my_file [root@(protected) root]# ls -l my_file -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jul 21 17:20 my_file
But let's say I have a file with the following permissions set:
[root@(protected) root]# ls -l my_file -rw-- ---- 1 root root 0 Jul 21 17:20 my_file
As you can see from the privilege flags, Only the root user has read/write access to this file. I can grant read access to everyone like this:
[root@(protected) root]# chmod +r my_file [root@(protected) root]# ls -l my_file -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jul 21 17:20 my_file
Another way to do it is if you create a group, make the other user member of that group, and then change group ownership and permissions of the file. Like so: (I'll call your friend "steve" if that's okay with you ;-)
[root@(protected) root]# ls -l my_file -rw-- ---- 1 root root 0 Jul 21 17:20 my_file [root@(protected) root]# groupadd friends [root@(protected) root]# usermod steve -G steve,friends [root@(protected) root]# chgrp friends my_file [root@(protected) root]# chmod g+r my_file [root@(protected) root]# ls -l my_file -rw-r-- -- 1 root friends 0 Jul 21 17:20 my_file
Or you could just change group ownership of the file to his personal group:
[root@(protected) root]# ls -l my_file -rw-- ---- 1 root root 0 Jul 21 17:20 my_file [root@(protected) root]# chgrp steve my_file [root@(protected) root]# chmod g+r my_file [root@(protected) root]# ls -l my_file -rw-r-- -- 1 root steve 0 Jul 21 17:20 my_file
As you can see, there are a lot of different ways to solve this, which one you choose depends on the circumstances. Will other users need access to the same file(s) in the future? What's in the file? How is the file used, is it static or is it updated by you or perhaps a program? Some programs are picky about file ownership and permissions.
In the end, to pick the perfect solution you need to understand the UN*X file permission model. Unfortunately it's quite primitive compared to what you'll find in, say, Netware or even Windos today. For that kind of fine-grained control you need to use server software like Samba or an FTP server.
ps.
Yes, I usually do everything as "root" on my servers. It's a bad habit, I know ;-)
-- Andreas Lund (floyd@(protected)) Tel: +47 90.07.71.62 / +47 63.88.33.56 Ano-Tech Computers (http://www.atc.no/) ** He had a baseball bat and I was tied to a chair. ** Pissing him off was the smart thing to do. -- Max Payne
__ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Valhalla-list mailing list Valhalla-list@(protected) https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/valhalla-list
|
|
 |