What does the term "Wheel" mean under sharing and permissions?

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Level 1

26 points

What does the term "Wheel" mean under sharing and permissions?

Hi Everyone,
When I select a folder (in Applications for example) and then click "get info", under the sharing and permissions section where accounts are listed with their respective permissions, the list usually starts with system or admin, then a term called "Wheel", then everyone. What is Wheel?
Screen shot 2009-10-09 at 3.46.58 PM
I have attempted to paste a screen shot here.
Any thoughts?
joe
Screen shot 2009-10-09 at 3.46.58 PM
Looks like I'm not having any luck pasting a screen shot...How does one do that?

Message was edited by: K9Lover

White MacBook, 2.4ghz, 2GB RAM, 160 GB HD, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Oct 9, 2009 12:48 PM

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Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Oct 9, 2009 12:52 PM in response to K9Lover

wheel is a system superuser group. By default only the root user belongs to it. Snow leopard has changed some permissions and now the preinstalled system apps in the main Applications folder have the group wheel (it was admin in Leopard). I don't know why they did it but this is now normal. where else do you see wheel?

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Answer 2

K9Lover Author

Level 1

26 points

Oct 9, 2009 12:55 PM in response to V.K.

Thanks VK for the speedy reply...
I see it when clicking "get info" on most, not all, application folders. Safari, for example has, system, then wheel, then everyone. iPhoto on the other hand has sytem, then admin, then everyone.

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Answer 3

Oct 9, 2009 1:06 PM in response to K9Lover

I think you will find that all applications that were installed by Snow Leopard operating system will have the "wheel". These applications are also 64 bit.

This of course does not include other applications that are not on the Snow Leopard install disk like iLife or iWork, etc....

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Answer 4

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Oct 9, 2009 1:14 PM in response to K9Lover

as I said, all preinstalled *snow leopard* apps (Safari, Mail, Address Book etc) now have the wheel group. this is normal. anything else? iphoto is not a snow leoaprd app and still uses the old system with the admin group.

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Answer 5

K9Lover Author

Level 1

26 points

Oct 9, 2009 1:18 PM in response to V.K.

Thanks to you both VK and Joseph for your replies and for shedding light on that odd term "wheel".
I knew I hadn't added a user named Wheel!

all the best,
joe

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