Repair Permissions Message

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Level 1

5 points

Repair Permissions Message

Hello,

I have a new MacBook Pro with OS 10.5.5. I guess this would qualify as a general maintenance question...

Every time I repair the permissions I get a message that says: Group differs on "private/etc/cups",should be 0, group is 26". And that's the only repair that ever needs to be done.

Just wondering what this means and why it always needs to be repaired.

Also, when OS X first came out there was some automatic maintenance and only happened if your computer was on in the wee hours of the morning. Has that changed by now?

Thanks

iMac Intel Core 2, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 2GHz,1GB,150 GB. Also iBook G3:900 MHz,640 MB,40 GB

Posted on Mar 11, 2009 5:01 PM

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Answer 1

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V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Mar 11, 2009 5:12 PM in response to motc

motc wrote:
Hello,

I have a new MacBook Pro with OS 10.5.5. I guess this would qualify as a general maintenance question...

Every time I repair the permissions I get a message that says: Group differs on "private/etc/cups",should be 0, group is 26". And that's the only repair that ever needs to be done.

this message is harmless and should be ignored. everybody gets it.

Just wondering what this means and why it always needs to be repaired.

Also, when OS X first came out there was some automatic maintenance and only happened if your computer was on in the wee hours of the morning. Has that changed by now?

yes, OS X will run those maintenance scripts automatically when the computer wakes if you sleep it overnight instead of shutting down. there is some debate about what happens if you shut it down overnight. this actually doesn't make much difference as all of those scripts are very inconsequential.

Thanks

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Answer 2

Mar 11, 2009 5:14 PM in response to motc

HI,

Don't worry about the, " Group differs on "private/etc/cups",should be 0, group is 26" Nothing to be concerned about.

As for maintenance. If you turn your Mac off at night, it can't run maintenance, but you can take care of that yourself if you want.

How to Force Background maintenance tasks (logs and temporary items) There are several 3rd party maintainence utilities mentioned at this link you can use instead if you don't feel comfortable using the Terminal application.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 3

motc Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 12, 2009 9:27 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks for the info.

One last question: Is this message something specific to Leopard?

I've never noticed our iMac, running OS 10.4.11, display the same constant message after repairing permissions.

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Answer 4

Mar 12, 2009 12:10 PM in response to motc

Yes, it is specific to Leopard. I never say it in Tiger either. It's nothing to be concerned about. A software update somewhere along the way will probably take care of it.

Carolyn 🙂

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