Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Tue, 16 Aug 2011 01:32:44 -0700
From:      perryh@pluto.rain.com
To:        kudzu@tenebras.com
Cc:        yuri@rawbw.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Group permissions are broken?
Message-ID:  <4e4a2b2c.yX3blW9IEVGiJ%2BOa%perryh@pluto.rain.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAHu1Y73pODE%2BhQSWWQsjWCyjV9iq80sYqMOUKoeCMy8FSj3DFw@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <4E497C2A.4060403@rawbw.com> <CAHu1Y73pODE%2BhQSWWQsjWCyjV9iq80sYqMOUKoeCMy8FSj3DFw@mail.gmail.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Michael Sierchio <kudzu@tenebras.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Yuri <yuri@rawbw.com> wrote:
> > User john is a member of both webcamd and vboxusers:
> > # grep john /etc/group
> > webcamd:*:145:john
> > vboxusers:*:920:john
> >
> > When the file /tmp/my-test is owned by webcamd, user john can
> > touch it ok:
> > $ ls -l /tmp/my-test ; touch ?/tmp/my-test
> > -rw-rw---- ?1 vboxusers ?vboxusers ?0 Aug 15 12:54 /tmp/my-test
> >
> > But when /tmp/my-test is owned by webcamd, user john gets an
> > error:
> > $ ls -l /tmp/my-test ; touch ?/tmp/my-test
> > -rw-rw---- ?1 webcamd ?webcamd ?0 Aug 15 13:02 /tmp/my-test
> > touch: /tmp/my-test: Permission denied
> >
> > Why does this error occur? Two groups seem identical. Just
> > different group ids.
>
> /tmp has the sticky bit set.  man 8 sticky

On my 8.1 system, sticky(8) says:

  A directory whose `sticky bit' is set becomes ... a directory in
  which the _deletion_ of files is restricted.  A file in a sticky
  directory may only be _removed_ or _renamed_ if ...

[emphasis added]

Nothing there about the sticky bit changing the permissions required
to _overwrite_ a file, which is the subject of the current inquiry.

Even if the sticky bit _did_ have some effect on overwriting a file,
how would that explain the _different_ behavior of the two cases shown?



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4e4a2b2c.yX3blW9IEVGiJ%2BOa%perryh>