From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 9 06:44:23 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 549BB16A4CE for ; Tue, 9 Mar 2004 06:44:23 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (ns0.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8E02C43D54 for ; Tue, 9 Mar 2004 06:44:22 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (localhost.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1])i29Ei5np098201 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Tue, 9 Mar 2004 14:44:05 GMT (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost)id i29Ei52e098200; Tue, 9 Mar 2004 14:44:05 GMT (envelope-from matthew) Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 14:44:05 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman To: Ruben de Groot , Marty Landman , Dan Nelson , Alex de Kruijff , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20040309144405.GD16123@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> Mail-Followup-To: Matthew Seaman , Ruben de Groot , Marty Landman , Dan Nelson , Alex de Kruijff , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20040308212749.GC894@alex.lan> <20040308214225.GA95503@dan.emsphone.com> <6.0.0.22.0.20040308165050.104aea98@pop.face2interface.com> <20040309141025.GB16123@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> <20040309142907.GA37091@ei.bzerk.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="BRE3mIcgqKzpedwo" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20040309142907.GA37091@ei.bzerk.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-4.8 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=2.63 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Scanned: clamd / ClamAV version devel-20040304, clamav-milter version 0.67j Subject: Re: Why can't I write this file? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 14:44:23 -0000 --BRE3mIcgqKzpedwo Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Tue, Mar 09, 2004 at 03:29:07PM +0100, Ruben de Groot wrote: > On Tue, Mar 09, 2004 at 02:10:25PM +0000, Matthew Seaman typed: > >=20 > > Yes, quite. Your login credentials are established when you login to > > the system and only then -- that's when the limits of what you're > > authorized to do are set, which includes amongst other things which > > groups you're a member of. So you have to log out and back in again > > to pick up any changes to /etc/master.passwd or /etc/group. >=20 > Actually, when there's a change in /etc/group, you can use=20 > "newgrp " to add the new group to your credentials without > logging in again. It's not exactly the same, but it does the work. Not on BSD-ish Unices you can't: % which newgrp newgrp: Command not found. That's a SysV-ism, and dates back to the days when SysV group handling used very different semantics to the BSD style that almost every *nix uses nowadays. On the early SysV systems your login session would have one and only one group active at a time: any files you created would have that group membership, irrespective of the group ownership of the directory, and your access to files was tested by matching just that group to the group ownership of the file, rather than comparing to all groups you are a member of. If you wanted to change to a new group, you had to use the newgrp command -- and in some cases, that would require your giving the group password. If you ever wondered why the /etc/group file has an encrypted password field that is almost never used, this is where it comes from. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK --BRE3mIcgqKzpedwo Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFATdg1dtESqEQa7a0RAlk7AJ0VmszXu1sukRJE5RySSlB39dgQ/ACeJRAZ rTSiDDfO2/m47hEO6PdFHaA= =pJ+g -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --BRE3mIcgqKzpedwo--