Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!csun!kithrup!sef
From: sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals
Subject: Re: non-superuser chown(2)s considered harmful
Message-ID: <1990Dec11.102225.10925@kithrup.COM>
Date: 11 Dec 90 10:22:25 GMT
References: <110075@convex.convex.com> <18796@rpp386.cactus.org> <660809780.21869@mindcraft.com>
Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd.
Lines: 24

In article <660809780.21869@mindcraft.com> karish@mindcraft.com (Chuck Karish) writes:
>Anyway, changing a file's ownership isn't necessary for sharing.
>Changing its ownership handicaps the previous owner's access just
>as it enhances the new owner's access.  Group access is the
>right way to share files.

Ok. I create a file, for the sole purpose of giving to a friend of mine, who
doesn't happen to be in my group.  Without making the file world-readable
(which I don't want to do for various reasons), how do I let my friend read
it?

Given the ability to do chown(), I would just chown() the file over to him.
If I thought I might want to read or write it later, I might leave it group
readable/writable.

Not being able to do a chown() means that, when I find a file I like in a
directory I own (it happens!), I have to copy it, remove it, and then rename
it back.  Oh, boy.  Such ease.

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "I made the universe, but please don't blame me for it;
sef@kithrup.COM  |  I had a bellyache at the time."
-----------------+           -- The Turtle (Stephen King, _It_)
Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.