From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 4 19:02:36 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 48289106566C for ; Mon, 4 May 2009 19:02:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 085DF8FC1C for ; Mon, 4 May 2009 19:02:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-196-7-253.dynamic.qsc.de [92.196.7.253]) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9E5CE3D3F9; Mon, 4 May 2009 21:02:34 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id n44J2TxZ001502; Mon, 4 May 2009 21:02:29 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 21:02:29 +0200 From: Polytropon To: Old Crankbuster Message-Id: <20090504210229.c10231a2.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20090504141834.GA5348@gecko.davescrunch.net> References: <20090504141834.GA5348@gecko.davescrunch.net> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Questions about groups. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 19:02:36 -0000 On Mon, 4 May 2009 21:18:34 +0700, Old Crankbuster wrote: > > Coming from Gnu/Linux, I see differences in group generation on regular > user generation, and there's a group I'm not familiar with - 'operator'. > > What does that one do? The operator groupt allows its users to perform some operator tasks, without needing them to be in the wheel group. It's like a "limited root permissions" group. You'll find some programs that are +x for this group (for example /sbin/shutdown). > I'm familiar with 'staff' and I've added my normal user to that, [...] I've often seen that FreeBSD defaults to user name = group name for the adduser script, but I usually use the staff group, as you do. Further fine grained parameters for user and group preferences can be set in an environment where you have more than one user. > [...] and of > course 'wheel'. Why "of course"? :-) > I intend to use the system on a laptop in this case, [...] Typical single user setting. > [...] and need to enable > regular user access to audio, cdrom/dvd read and write, usb access, and > network reconfiguration/dialout, games and so forth. There are several groups that you can add your user to, but because you're already in wheel, you don't have to (such as the "dialer" group for ppp). > I am not seeing such things as plugdev,audio,cdrom in etc/group after > initial install. No, they seem to be "Linuxisms". :-) > Do I need to manually add such groups and then point relevant packages > to them? No. What should happen then? How should that work? :-) FreeBSD manages the things you're requiring through two important files: /etc/devfs.conf (and /etc/devfs.rules) and /etc/devd.conf. The devfs files control the virtual device file system. It allows you to have permissions on a per-device file basis. These files are those that are present from system startup on. The devd file controls how the system should react if it detects new devices while it's already running. See the manpages for these files. Yes, they do exist. :-) -- Polytropon >From Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...