On Friday 13 Jun 2003 7:54 pm, Jan Wilson wrote:
> * Anne Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [030613 11:12]:
> > I should add that the properties of the Graphics link show me as
> > owner and group as user, while the properties of the OldHome link
> > show root for both.  I created them immediately consecutively, so
> > there should be not difference in what I was doing.  This is what
> > happened:
>
> Right.  Since you are the owner of the directory and the link, you
> can change the group.  You can't really change the owner, but since
> you were assigning yourself as owner, it didn't object.
>
But it looks as though root owns the link to OldHome.  At least that's 
what is shown in the properties box in kde.

> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Desktop]$ chown anne OldHome
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Desktop]$ chgrp users Oldhome
> > chgrp: failed to get attributes of `Oldhome': No such file or
> > directory
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Desktop]$ whoami
> > anne
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Desktop]$ ls -l Gr*
> > lrwxrwxrwx    1 anne     users           9 Jun 13 13:55 Graphics
> > -> /Graphics/
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Desktop]$ ls -l Old*
> > lrwxrwxrwx    1 anne     users          13 Jun 13 13:57 OldHome
> > -> /mnt/OldHome/                              /
>
So is this actually giving me the details of the link OldHome, or the 
directory /mnt/OldHome?

> It allowed you to change the group of the LINK, not the
> /mnt/OldHome directory that the symlink links to.  Notice who owns
> /mnt ... root, right?  Probably with these permissions:
>
> drwxr-xr-x  ??  root  root  ??  mnt/
>
> So nobody except root can mess with the /mnt directory.
>
All I wanted to do was change the icon on the link.  I wasn't trying 
to do anything to the directory.

> The reason the default permissions for a symlink are
>
> lrwxrwxrwx  is that they don't really matter much.  It is only a
> pointer to a file or directory; the ownership on the target file or
> directory is what determines who can do what.

I do appreciate your patience in trying to explain to me.  I'm really 
confused.

Anne

Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com

Reply via email to