chgrp not changing a file?

kilosi · 03-27-2015, 06:37 PM

Hello,

OS: CentOS 6.3

Background:
I'm trying to set up a situation where my FTP account is in a group where my phpbb forums were created. This will allow me to upload changes as I customize my forums (ie: .css files). However, right now, my problem is that I'm running into invalid permissions and the only way to move the files is to upload the file to a directory my FTP account has access too and then sudo cp the file over. Upon closer inspection of my files, it appears the groups the files have been made under are not the correct group.

Problem:
I am trying to use chgrp on a specific file to change the group owner to the group my FTP account is a member of but it does not seem to be working. Here is a snippet of what I'm doing:

Code:

zzz@aaaa:/var/www/html/yyy/forums/styles/GlossyBlack/theme]$ sudo chgrp apache colours.css -v
group of `colours.css' retained as apache
zzz@aaaa:/var/www/html/yyy/forums/styles/GlossyBlack/theme]$ ls
total 164
drwxr-xr-x 3 5645316 apache  4096 Mar 27 15:11 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 5645316 apache  4096 Nov 18  2012 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root    apache 23480 Mar 27 19:05 colours.css

I'm not sure why it still says root so I suspect I am doing something incorrect. When looking around, at first it seemed chgrp could change group owner on files but as I dug more, it seemed it can also change groups themselves. So I'm a little confused and require some clarity of experts.

I hope changing the group owner of this file will give access to my FTP account so I can apply this change to all needed locations.

Thanks.

dijetlo · 03-28-2015, 03:43 AM

Try...

Code:

sudo chown <user or blank for no modification>:<group or blank for no modification>

see example:

Code:

bash-4.3$ ls -alh target 
-rw-r--r-- 1 willie users 0 Mar  3 07:11 target
bash-4.3$ sudo chown root:wheel target
Password: 
bash-4.3$ ls -alh target
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 Mar  3 07:11 target
bash-4.3$ sudo chown :users target
bash-4.3$ ls -alh target
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users 0 Mar  3 07:11 target
bash-4.3$ sudo chown willie: target
bash-4.3$ ls -alh target
-rw-r--r-- 1 willie users 0 Mar  3 07:11 target

Hope that helps

kilosi · 03-28-2015, 10:08 AM

Ah!

That was it - I now have set all of my files to the group. When I was originally executing chown, I was not setting the group - only the user. This explains what was going on.

Thanks for the help.

suicidaleggroll · 03-28-2015, 10:18 AM

The first column is the owner, the second column is the group. That file was already in the group "apache":

Code:

$ ls
total 164
drwxr-xr-x 3 5645316 apache  4096 Mar 27 15:11 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 5645316 apache  4096 Nov 18  2012 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root    apache 23480 Mar 27 19:05 colours.css

Which is why nothing was happening, and which is why it gave you the warning:

Code:

group of `colours.css' retained as apache

The owner of that file is root. To change the owner you use chown (CHange OWNer) rather than chgrp (CHange GRouP).

dijetlo · 03-28-2015, 10:51 AM

No problem, Kilosi. We a love a good cli question 'round here.
Gives us old guys a chance to show off...

jpollard · 03-28-2015, 02:51 PM

and if that doesn't work, check the security label on the file. Copying the file should cause it to inherit the correct label, doing an "mv" on it will not.

John VV · 03-28-2015, 06:27 PM

also BE AWARE!!!
CentOS 6.3 is UNSUPPORTED!
CentOS 6.4 is UNSUPPORTED!
CentOS 6.5 is UNSUPPORTED!

Cent ONLY supports the CURRENT minor version

upgrade to 6.6 ASAP!!!
you are missing 2 years of SECURITY updates and fixes
6.3 is VULNERABLE to EVERYTHING that has been fixed in the last TWO YEARS!!!!

kilosi · 03-29-2015, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John VV

also BE AWARE!!!
CentOS 6.3 is UNSUPPORTED!
CentOS 6.4 is UNSUPPORTED!
CentOS 6.5 is UNSUPPORTED!

Cent ONLY supports the CURRENT minor version

upgrade to 6.6 ASAP!!!
you are missing 2 years of SECURITY updates and fixes
6.3 is VULNERABLE to EVERYTHING that has been fixed in the last TWO YEARS!!!!

Can you provide me some links on how I can upgrade? I'm currently running a VPS so have to do it myself.

Thanks.

suicidaleggroll · 03-29-2015, 05:32 PM

yum update

kilosi · 03-29-2015, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suicidaleggroll

yum update

Is the update of the OS going to force a reboot of the machine? I will need to schedule downtime if it will, since its a production server.

Thanks!!

dijetlo · 03-29-2015, 06:21 PM

Anytime you modify the kernel,you're going to have to reboot. You can do the update, check the logs to make sure you've got a good load and then reboot on your own schedule (we do that in the course of a single night, usually). Changes to the kernel do not take effect until you reboot.