user access to files owned by root

jonfa · 07-09-2007, 09:36 AM

Hi All,

I want to create a user , call it LOG, to access the log files on my Centos 4.5 box (/var/log). The files within this directory have the permissions of 640 (rw-r-----). How can I safely allow this user to read these files without making the permissions 644? I want only root and this LOG user access to them.

Can I use sudo?

Thanks.

Hern_28 · 07-09-2007, 09:56 AM

Could add the user to the admin groups.

pixellany · 07-09-2007, 11:58 AM

file permissions are by user and group. You can't give someone the privileges of another user without giving them that password. Thus the common way of doing what you want is with groups. For example:

chown :specialgroup filename assigns filename to "specialgroup"
chmod X6X filename gives read-write permissions to the group (replace "X" with appropriate values for owner and others)
usermod -a -G specialgroup username adds username to specialgroup