Re: file permisions

[Damion Yates <nospam [at] rd.bbc.co.uk>]

On Mon, 3 Jan 2000, ross wrote:

> can anyone help?
>
> i'm stuck with with file permisions for vfat file systems. i want to
> configure the home directory for a standard user on a vfat file system but
> i can't set the file permisions to rw for users (root has the access i want
> but i don't want to run as root) i'm running suse 6.3 i've tried setting it
> via fstab file / yast / kde's kfstab and manually with chmod rwx and chmod
> 777. the books have been of little help as the file permisions seem to be
> automatically checked. i found a setting for this check in yast which i
> switched off. i changed the file settings in mtab. during bootup, a message
> apears showing the file permissions reverting back to the previous
> settings. rw noexec nosuid nodev

Although you can set the mount options in /etc/fstab to allow read/write
access to certain users in a group to all be able to access the mount, it's
probably not as much use as your other options, which nobody seems to have
mentioned yet.

uvfat and umsdos. umsdos is an old filesystem type (although it has been
kept completely up to date with loads of updates and fixes right up to the
lastest kernels.. people haven't yet given up on it) that allows a FAT
filesystem to appear as if it's a unix filesystem, with symbolic links,
special file types (devices) and most importantly user and other unix file
permissions. This is accomplished with files called --LINUX--.--- in each
directory which contain the extra parts needed in the info for that
directory. Before vfat this included long filename data for the short 8.3
name files were given. Then with vfat, uvfat was written that used
-LINUX---.--- files to hold only perms, etc as the long files were kept the
same as win95's long files.

I've not really followed development, but I have a feeling uvfat is only
available as a patch to a valguely old kernel version. You don't loose much
between the two, although uvfat sounds more use.

Basically you can use umsdos to mount your Win95 partition as root and then
'own' certain home directories to different users on a per directory basis.
This can be of use as the same space would be available when booted to
Win95. If you change stuff in Win95 you need to use umssync in the relavent
directories. Have fun.

Damion

--
Damion Yates - Senior Internet Operations Engineer - Internet Services
email: Damion.Yates [at] bbc.co.uk - phone: +44 1737 839510

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