[mythtv-users] Permission problem... mythtv user

Brad DerManouelian myth at dermanouelian.com
Wed Jan 10 19:58:22 UTC 2007


On Jan 10, 2007, at 11:09 AM, A JM wrote:

> On 1/10/07, Brad DerManouelian <myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:
>> Sounds like he manually created /home/mythtv as root not realizing
>> that he simply created a directory, not a user. Realizing he had no
>> mythtv user, he created it later and wondered why it didn't go
>> through his entire filesystem structure and pick out any directories
>> named mythtv and assigned them to that new user. At least, that's the
>> scenario in my head. :)
>
> Well, I'm still learning linux as can be told by my mistypings and
> poor linux vocabulary... sorry about that.

Not a problem, but this isn't really related to mythtv - it's related  
to learning basic linux commands, so this discussion should probably  
take place on another mailing list.

> I'm going to take a stab that #adduser wouldn't do a thing but give me
> an error message on a FC6 box so I must have used #useradd mythtv
> instead, becuse mythtv did exist as a user.
>
> When the user is added can you tell me what the default permissions
> are for that user. I assume they would have read/write to their own
> directory? Now that the user mythtv has a home folder /mythtv do I
> need to change the permissions on the folder?

If you add a user and the user's home directory is created by that  
action, that user has full permissions on that directory. However, if  
the directory is added manually, is has full permissions of the user  
who created the directory and will not change unless the user who  
created the directory changes it (or if root changes it since they  
have permission to change any directory). When you add a user and the  
user's home directory already exists, linux does not go through and  
change permissions. It assumes you have that directory set to those  
permissions for a reason and doesn't attempt to "fix" it for you.  
Microsoft would probably do that for you and break a bunch of things  
if you really did mean the directory to have the permissions you set  
on it. :)

> So, let's assume for the sake of argument that I created a /mythtv
> folder first then created a user mythtv shouldn't the GUI be able to
> assign the user mythtv to the folder /mythtv if I make that change
> from root?

I hardly ever use the GUI so I'm not sure. I would guess there's a  
way to change it there, but you would have to be logged in (or  
authenticated) as root (see my above statement).

> I would make the argument that it should be able to do that but it
> didn't happened.... is it not the same as assigning the user a /home
> folder if the folder reides in the /home directory, like /home/mythtv?

Again, only the user who creates the directory has full permissions  
to the directory (by default) unless that user (or root) changes its  
permissions. The location (/ or /home or /whatever) has no bearing on  
this. /home is an arbitrary directory and is not limited to  
containing home directories. You can set your home directories to  
reside anywhere you like and you would still have the same issue.

All this to say:
Go to the terminal as root and type:
chown -R mythtv.mythtv /home/mythtv

That will set the owner (and group) of the /home/mythtv directory  
(and its children) to the mythtv user.
This will ensure the mythtv user has full permissions over its home  
directory and anything contained within.

-Brad



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