Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!letni!mic!convex!convex.COM From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals Subject: Re: non-superuser chown(2)s considered harmful Message-ID: <110064@convex.convex.com> Date: 8 Dec 90 05:21:45 GMT References: <1990Dec6.005358.6336@dg-rtp.dg.com> <18786@rpp386.cactus.org> <658@silence.princeton.nj.us> Sender: news@convex.com Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX Lines: 14 As was pointed out to me by Dick Dunn , there's also the problem of being able to create files you can't get rid of or touch without superuser intervention. A tar or cpio extract of directories containing files owned by another user will create this scenario. Once the directory is owned by someone else, you can't change it back, so you can't delete the files, and you can't delete the directory because it's not empty. You shouldn't have to get superuser help to fix something you yourself did. --tom -- Tom Christiansen tchrist@convex.com convex!tchrist "With a kernel dive, all things are possible, but it sure makes it hard to look at yourself in the mirror the next morning." -me