Hi there,

I am a newbie to Linux,

While studing, I cannot find clear information about the set of files: /etc/permissions , /etc/permissions.local.

Can anyone tell me about what they do.

Thanks in advance.

quanba:

maybe your study material needs more detailing.
here is a good tutorial on Linux, download it and
use it for studying:

http://www.freebookcentre.net/unix-b...heer)-PDF.html

hope this helps.

If you can't help someone asking a specific question, why bother posting a reply? Suggesting they download 580+ page book? Do you think that's really helping?

By all means give them a link to more information, but only after giving a brief answer to their question.

FFS... is this really a help forum? It's becoming clear to me why Linux isn't more widely used.

Neither of the permissions files exist of ubuntu 8.04 and I have no recollection of them on other *n*x systems.

Esswendle:

You said: "If you can't help someone asking a specific question, why bother posting a reply? Suggesting they download 580+ page book? Do you think that's really helping?"

REPLY:
These are things you need to learn first in coming here:

1.) Read this: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=45094
and this: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-forum-103564/

2.) This is a newbie help forum, most helps come from newbies though we have here experienced users to warrant you a professional advice. If you read behind my line the jest is this: NOBODY IS PAYING US TO HELP YOU OR ANYONE OVER YOUR PROBLEM SO BE CONTENTED TO ACCEPT OR IGNORe WHAT IS GIVEN YOU FOR FREE! This is not a microsoft world where "profit" and "laziness" are the motivating factors to both the seller and the buyer: and I'm sorry to state that here honestly. We don't come here under obligation to baby-set a dull user just because we "are under obligation to return service for the profit gained" we are a community who believe in FREE SOFTWARE and the FREEDOM IT BRINGS TO THE WORLD OF COMPUTING, as well as we believe in the good virtue of charity for helping others who are facing new experience with the free software. So, for fairness do not judge anyone here saying "download a 580 page book (to read) is it really helping?" certainly it is! Imagine how many hours a newbie gathers information as to "what which where is a good tutorial" rather than just single clicking a link offered by one who has gone way ahead on the same road. There are hundreds of tutorials to choose from: but gather which is best and professional takes time. 580+ pp. is nothing to a knowledge hungry newbie, but it is unbearably onerous to a lazy pampered Windows user who knows nothing but click here click there and proclaim he is "Advanced User" who cannot decipher a simple trick in the windows registry file: my point here is: tutorial reading is indispensable to a linux user, learning comes through reading and using. This world is different from the proprietary world.

3.) It is not that I don't know about permissions, and in fact there is no permission file (but permissions in EVERY FILE). From the point where a newbie asks the question I or any other user here can immediately sense that something grave is wanting from the person's knowledge about linux/unix. Permission is like a kindergarten lesson, it can tell how much the inquirer knows about linux, so rather than GIVING A LECTURE HERE HE CAN BETTER PROFIT FROM READING A MATERIAL WRITTEN BY PROFESSIONAL LINUX TEACHERS, such as one I have offered in the link. The newbie cannot "take me" home to become a teacher on-call, but a downloaded good tutorial is available to him anytime he needs reference.
-------------

You said: "By all means give them a link to more information, but only after giving a brief answer to their question."

REPLY:
Who are you to bind anyone here under your stupid rules? Go make your self a Guru first, prove your worth lazy boy, before subjugating others to your obsolete mentality.
-----------

You said: "FFS... is this really a help forum? It's becoming clear to me why Linux isn't more widely used."

REPLY:
That is the proof of your ignorance. Be reminded: Arrogance is not a valid excuse to Ignorance. Go ye learn from the ants how much work it takes to fill the chasm of your want-of-knowledge. You sound like a charlatan: pretending a lot, but cannot do even a simple thing to improve the world.
-----------

I hope this opens your blindness Ess-swindle.

== BY THE WAY ESS-SWINDLE, if you read the tutorial you'd find out that Permission lesson is just a minor two page topic on it, plus hundreds of important information about Linux. Now, is it not the help you wanted? Of course it is better than reading a quickly done post. Except maybe if you are just toooooo lazy to read.===

Calm down malekmustaq, no sense in starting a flame war.

quanba and Esswendle: You could have got the answer easily by using a search engine. You should be thankful to malekmustaq for providing you a with a good book. Do you have any idea of how many books are there for Linux? malekmustaq could have given you your answer in one line but he had the patience to actually provide you with a source to learn more, so that you'd have fewer questions in the future.

P.S. 550 pages means nothing to me. Even if I read only 40 pages a day, I could complete the book in two weeks.

Welcome. It's not normally this childish, I promise. :P

I haven't seen these files before, and can only find limited mention of them on the Internet. Could you tell us what you were trying to do when they came up and in what context? The more specific, the better. If this thread gets derailed or locked, feel free to PM me or something and I'll take you as far as I can.

Dude, first off, you CANNOT spend your life getting that angry at strangers on the Internet. You will get high blood pressure, ulcers, and die before your time. It's much better to enjoy your life and if someone is being an asshole, let him.

That said, I have almost as many posts as you, almost all of them in helping and the rest in discussion, so I hope you'll consider my opinion on this. I'm all for providing resources - for example, putting it in your sig is a great idea. The problem is that when a newbie comes here with a specific question and your response is to say nothing directly related to his issue, instead directing him to over 500 pages of reading. Now, obviously, there are some people who don't flinch at this, but most people don't have the confidence to dive into The Ultimate Linux Tome to find out what a single file does. Even if we decide he should drop his life and read all that to answer this, the fact is that very few people are going to - and that's why you're not helping. The people who are willing to read that much will find the link in your sig and get the most of it; the people who are not will, whether you like it or not, pass over that kind of post. If you're more interested in being right than helpful, aren't there better ways to spend your time?

I leave you with this - I know for a fact that I didn't get good by reading a 580-page book. I read a lot more than that, but I did it by reading up on specific subjects as they impeded my progress and by reading articles I came across when I was idle. Believe me, if Linux required studying, I would not be having this conversation with you.

The OP said he was studying Linux and that his study material didn't contain the information. It makes sense that mustaq provided him with material that contained the information he was looking for. Mustaq clearly mentioned that he was providing material for studying.

But he didn't ask for a study guide. He asked what /etc/permissions is for. Man knows what he wants. :P

karamarisan:

We are here helping quanba, please do not talk about your self. If you want to talk about your "self" go make another thread about handsome people somewhere Linux/General. I am just reminding Essswindle a new comer who seems to deride the whole Linux Question: you have no concern about it, so please don't get self ego-centered.

Another thing: yes indeed we are about the same number of post: but don't you notice I have greater useful/productive posts when I was 232 like you now? Have some good manners boy, you are just two months in the community. Everyone here is bound to observe good manners and respect to the seniors.

Thank you gregorian for your objective judgments: this community needs people like you. Keep up the good work.

I hope this helps.

At least I can avoid personal attacks and constantly talking about how great I am relative to strangers. Enjoy your thread. OP, I hope your find your answer.

why not just google "/etc/permissions"? and stop this whole discourse which has nothing to do with resolving the question.

I did, before posting that ubuntu 8.04 does not have these files and I have not seen them before. It didn't help much. I've just done it again, with more determination, and found that these files may be used only on SuSE. Here is one of the better pages. I figure the files list individual files with their owner, group and permissions and then some script can be run to check-or-set these attributes. Nice idea, especially for people that use chown or chmod with -R options in the root directory!

Thanks. That's exactly the answer I want.

catkin,

That's something new. Indeed the info is very helpful to others.