ottavio2006-de...@yahoo.com (Ottavio Caruso) writes: >permissions. Why not just make it easier for the user?
That obviously depends on what the user wants. The default used to be: everyone in my group (department, class, etc..) can see my regular files but cannot change them. That allows easy collaboration. It does not allow full sharing of documents, because UNIX file modes aren't powerful enough (you can allow writes to one group, but modes aren't cloned, groups aren't cloned and ownership is still a distinct feature). In that time private files were the exception and include things like keys or your mailbox. Privacy was maintained by the tools used for such files and everything was fine. Nowadays, collaboration is done differently, rarely by file access but mostly via some web resource. That reduces the amount of versioned Excel sheets passed around, or whatever UNIX people use to store bullet lists in. And it increases the interest in keeping private things in private files. Fortunately multi-user time-sharing systems are as rare and we use personal computers for quite some time and the 'users' group now helps your multiple egos to collaborate easily. The admin of the company backup system may still be able to read your files. -- -- Michael van Elst Internet: mlel...@serpens.de "A potential Snark may lurk in every tree."