Changing ownership

cryste · 06-17-2011, 07:44 AM

Why would I need to be root to change the ownership of a file? Example:

I'm logged in as dwadmin and I've created a file:

-rw-rw---- 1 dwadmin dgw 0 Jun 17 07:46 testing.txt

I want to change the ownership to another user, but am getting the following error:

chown 511 testing.txt
chown: changing ownership of `testing.txt': Operation not permitted

511 is a member of dgw group

szboardstretcher · 06-17-2011, 07:58 AM

Nevermind... I didnt realize you were trying to do this as !root.

Nevermind.

---Ignore----

Code:

ls -alh

and post the output of . and ..

Also

Code:

lsattr testing.txt

carltm · 06-17-2011, 07:58 AM

It's a security thing. What if user1 downloaded some inappropriate
files to a public directory and then changed ownership to user2?
It would look like user2 was responsible.

Also, if regular users could change ownership it would defeat the
purpose of disk quotas.

tronayne · 06-17-2011, 08:03 AM

An ordinary user cannot change ownership of a file; it's not an error, it's "operation not permitted."

If you think about a little, what havoc could be wreaked if users could willy-nilly do such?

One way around is for another user to copy a file to their own home directory (or any directory they can write in) -- that user will own the copied file.

Hope this helps some.

ssrameez · 06-17-2011, 10:31 AM

It can be compared to giving away your clothes to someone else. But the receiving person is not aware that the used cloths are in his shelf..

So to prevent that only Super User has the privilege to take your clothes and give to someone else..

Reuti · 06-17-2011, 11:28 AM

I remember that it worked in the past, but was disabled when quotas were used anyway (to avoid that you flood someone else’s home directory). Looks like the default behavior changed.

NB: http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutil...own-files_003f