Random home directory permission changes

kc3 · 06-25-2009, 03:45 PM

It doesn't happen too often to the point that it's unbearable but occasionally my home/username directly will randomly become read only and I have to chmod it to write to it like normal, is there anything that can be done about it?

bsdunix · 06-25-2009, 05:41 PM

Based on the date/time of the changes, have you searched the /var/log system logs for any events related to the same time?

Does it happen after you either FTP, SSH, or telnet remotely connect to your computer?

Are there any root or user crontab jobs that run before the change?

kc3 · 06-25-2009, 07:08 PM

No I haven't checked, it does seem to happen more when I compile and install programs.

bsdunix · 06-25-2009, 09:00 PM

That's weird. Are you changing the config or Makefiles? Adding any configuration variables when running configure? Or basically just performing the typical ./configure, make, make install?

kc3 · 06-25-2009, 10:28 PM

Just type ones, occasionally run other variables but not normally and it definitely doesn't seem to be caused by that as it does it anyways. It doesn't do it all the time either.

bsdunix · 06-26-2009, 08:19 AM

I'm not sure then. Just try to investigate your system, as I discussed previously, after you notice the change. Keep a written system log of any changes/updates/installs that you do as a reference and an investigative tool.

Unless someone else has other ideas, I can't think of any other troubleshooting steps.

H_TeXMeX_H · 06-26-2009, 08:29 AM

I've had this happen when 'make install' installs things into my home directory after I run it as root, but only the source code directory for the program I was installing was affected, not the whole /home/$USER directory.

kc3 · 06-26-2009, 10:19 AM

Yeah it's the whole home/username directory, I know weird. Seems not to be happening lately, it was rare anyways but I'll be sure to keep a log, not a huge deal