Expanding permissions for fuser beyond root to all users on RHEL 5.1
 

First, I am a newbie to Linux and a newbie to this forum, so all suggestions will be gratefully appreciated.

I'm using the RHEL 5.1 fuser command in an application software package to determine if the process that is sending a print job to the &HOLD& file has completed or not by shelling out and executing the following command:

CMD = \SH -c' /sbin/fuser "ANPHOLD/\:ID:\"'\

where ANPHOLD is the folder name and the var ID contains the file name.

If a process is still connected to the ID file, then is the file has not yet been written completely.

This command works correctly from root using Terminal from the RHEL desktop.

It does not work at all using a telnet session from any other desktop launched by a user other than root.

The permissions on fuser were originally:

Owner root
Access Read and Write

Group root
Access Read-only

Others
Access Read-only

[x] Allow executing file as a program

I changed the permissions on fuser to:

Owner uv
Access Read and Write

Group (I tried) Admin (and) Users
Access Read-only

Others
Access Read-only

[x] Allow executing file as a program

I still get the same results - ie it only works from root.

I need to be able to execute fuser from any telnet login and from any user.

Do I need to reboot RHEL afte changing the permissions on fuser to activate the new permissions?

Do I need to add each user to the root group and, if so, how do I do that?

Other suggestions?

Thank you in advance for your assistance,

Dave

What error messages do you get in the two different test cases?

Also use the which command to see if fuser is on uv's PATH:

which fuser

----------------------
Steve Stites

Q. What error messages do you get in the two different test cases?

A. I get the name of the process attached to the file when I log in as root, which I expect to get. I do not get the name of the process attached to the file when I log in as any user other than root.

Q. Also use the which command to see if fuser is on uv's PATH:

A. fuser is not in uv's path, but the entire path from root to fuser is in the command "/sbin/fuser" and uv's path is "/usr/ibm/uv" and I am logged into "/usr/ibm/uv" when I log in as root and when I am logged in as uv.

Q. which fuser

A. I am only familiar with the fuser at "/sbin/fuser"

Steve, thank you for your assistance.

Problem solved:

I had installed a new application account (folder),from which I was running this application, beneath the parent folder and I failed to reopen the permissions on the parent folder and click the "Apply Permissions to enclosed files" button, which meant that the new application account folder had not inherited the permissions from the parent folder.

One more step to add to the InstallationReadMe document.

Thank you again for your help.

Happy New Year

Dave