chmod on a symbolic link

sharathkv25 · 04-30-2007, 11:10 PM

Code:

tpdev2 # ls -lad /nsms/omfs/app/
dr-xr-xr-x  12 otroot     tproot        8192 Apr 30 20:41 /nsms/omfs/app/

tpdev2 # ln -s /nsms/omfs/app /opt/omfs

lrwxr-x---   1 root       sys             14 Apr 30 21:00 osmf -> /nsms/omfs/app

I want the symbolic link "omfs" to have the same 555 permissions as the /nsms/osmf/app folder.

How do that?

A simple "chmod 555 /opt/omfs" is not changing the permission.

I am on HPUX.

Thanks

gilead · 04-30-2007, 11:23 PM

Are you finding that otroot or tproot can't access /nsms/omfs/app via the osmf link on HPUX? On Linux, the permissions of the link wouldn't matter because they aren't used. The permissions of the file/directory pointed by the link are used. The following is from the Linux man page for chmod:

Code:

       chmod  never  changes the permissions of symbolic links; the chmod system call cannot change
       their permissions.  This is not a problem since the permissions of symbolic links are  never
       used.  However, for each symbolic link listed on the command line, chmod changes the permis-
       sions of the pointed-to file.  In contrast, chmod ignores symbolic links encountered  during
       recursive directory traversals.

reverse · 05-01-2007, 12:05 AM

I believe the HPUX chmod will simply change the modes of the "linked to" file as opposed to the "link file" itself. What version of HPUX are we talking about?