Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!lighthouse!jando!ka3ovk!raysnec!shwake
From: shwake@raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: tar (was Re: FAQ ...)
Message-ID: <209@raysnec.UUCP>
Date: 17 Jan 91 15:30:17 GMT
References: <1991Jan16.192825.1412@csn.org!datran2> <1991Jan16.202825.14136@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <1991Jan16.221406.1979@csn.org!datran2> <1991Jan17.024255.25613@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Organization: IRS/CI - Technical Solutions Branch
Lines: 11

madler@pooh.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) writes:

>Really?  How normal a user were you (what groups)?  How can tar do this?
>It doesn't sound good--chown() should fail if you're not the superuser.

	Not necessarily. Numerous implementations allow an ordinary user to
give away his files through chown. Existing tar variants typically distinguish
between actions by a superuser and actions by an ordinary user. The "p" and
"o" options are not universally supported. I wrote a brief report years ago
on how one might be bitten by tar restorations - after we ourselves had been
bitten - under System III and V.