From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 19 21:40:01 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 43C2B16A41F for ; Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:40:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (dan.emsphone.com [199.67.51.101]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 331F743D77 for ; Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:39:41 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: (from dan@localhost) by dan.emsphone.com (8.13.1/8.13.3) id jBJLdZaD080631; Mon, 19 Dec 2005 15:39:35 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from dan) Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 15:39:34 -0600 From: Dan Nelson To: "gs_stoller@juno.com" Message-ID: <20051219213934.GJ89708@dan.emsphone.com> References: <20051219.125855.15860.149388@webmail38.nyc.untd.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20051219.125855.15860.149388@webmail38.nyc.untd.com> X-OS: FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE X-message-flag: Outlook Error User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11 Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: (no subject) X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:40:01 -0000 In the last episode (Dec 19), gs_stoller@juno.com said: > I discovered the user "operator" in UNIX , found it in the > book "Essential System Administration" by AEleen Frisch, and it has > features that I would like to use. The book says (on page 131) that > this user exists on some BSD systems and it is used for back-ups and > such. It is like superuser ( root ) in that it can access any file > regardless of the permission bits, but it operates readonly, it > cannot modify unless the permission bits allow it to do so. Actually, the "operator" user has read access to the raw device files that filesystems are mounted on. That's how it can do backups with the dump command. It has no special access to mounted filesystems themselves. -- Dan Nelson dnelson@allantgroup.com