Root directory ownership

Question

Level 1

19 points

Root directory ownership

Hi, I was wondering if it's normal that the root directory / should be owned by “root”. I get asked for my password every time I want to do something there (e.g. save a file, create a directory) and I don't remember this happening before (though this may just be my faulty memory).
Here's the relevant terminal output:

MacBook:/ ago$ ls -lah /
total 37311
drwxr-xr-x@ 35 root staff 1,2K 22 Mar 10:03 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 35 root staff 1,2K 22 Mar 10:03 ..
-rw-rw-r--@ 1 root admin 21K 22 Mar 10:03 .DS_Store
drwx------ 3 root admin 102B 28 Feb 2008 .Spotlight-V100
d-wx-wx-wt 2 root admin 68B 31 Ago 2009 .Trashes
-rw-r--r--@ 1 ago 501 45K 23 Gen 2008 .VolumeIcon.icns
srwxrwxrwx 1 root staff 0B 17 Mar 11:34 .dbfseventsd
---------- 1 root admin 0B 23 Giu 2009 .file
drwx------ 26 root admin 884B 22 Mar 01:52 .fseventsd
-rw-r--r--@ 1 ago admin 59B 30 Ott 2007 .hidden
-rw------- 1 root wheel 320K 30 Nov 11:42 .hotfiles.btree
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68B 18 Mag 2009 .vol
drwxrwxr-x+ 276 root admin 9,2K 19 Mar 18:28 Applications
drwxrwxr-x@ 21 root admin 714B 14 Nov 12:01 Developer
drwxrwxr-t+ 74 root admin 2,5K 18 Dic 22:14 Library
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68B 23 Giu 2009 Network
drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136B 13 Nov 17:49 System
drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 204B 31 Ago 2009 Users
drwxrwxrwt@ 3 root admin 102B 22 Mar 02:36 Volumes
drwxr-xr-x@ 39 root wheel 1,3K 13 Nov 17:44 bin
drwxrwxr-t@ 2 root admin 68B 23 Giu 2009 cores
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root wheel 5,1K 17 Mar 11:29 dev
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11B 31 Ago 2009 etc -> private/etc
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1B 17 Mar 11:30 home
drwxrwxrwt@ 3 root wheel 102B 31 Ago 2009 lost+found
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 18M 3 Nov 19:40 mach_kernel
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1B 17 Mar 11:30 net
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root admin 102B 24 Nov 2007 opt
drwxr-xr-x@ 6 root wheel 204B 31 Ago 2009 private
drwxr-xr-x@ 64 root wheel 2,1K 13 Nov 17:44 sbin
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11B 31 Ago 2009 tmp -> private/tmp
drwxr-xr-x@ 17 root wheel 578B 12 Set 2009 usr
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11B 31 Ago 2009 var -> private/var

Are these ownerships / permissions ok?

TIA,

A.

MacBook C2D 2.16 2GB, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Mar 22, 2010 2:08 AM

Reply

Answer 1

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,051 points

Mar 22, 2010 4:30 AM in response to ArAgost

Permissions on the root level of your hard drive should be drwxrwxr-x, while yours are drwxr-xr-x, which is why you don't have write access. Have you tried repairing permissions using Disk Utility? If that doesn't fix it, try pasting this into the Terminal:

sudo chmod 775 /

You'll be prompted for your password (note that it won't be shown when you type it).

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Answer 2

Mar 22, 2010 5:41 AM in response to ArAgost

These are the permissions recorded in the BaseSystem.pkg bom for the root directory->


% lsbom -p MUGsf /private/var/db/receipts/com.apple.pkg.BaseSystem.bom | head -1
drwxrwxr-t root admin .

Generally, the root directory should not be writeable to a non-privileged user- your group class is staff. admin would be a better choice. The sticky bit also adds some protection.

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Answer 3

ArAgost Author

Level 1

19 points

Mar 22, 2010 6:43 AM in response to Mark Jalbert

The command gives the same exact output as yours (well, that was expected), but for some reason Utility Disk won't revert it to that value. Do you suggest that I do it manually?

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Answer 4

Mar 22, 2010 7:35 AM in response to ArAgost

For some reason, the repair permissions function doesn't "fix" the root directory. I'd do it manually like this->


sudo chown :admin /;sudo chmod 1775 /

If you haven't changed the root directory 's group class to staff then I would check the repair permissions database for an installer that did ->


pkgutil --file-info /

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Answer 5

ArAgost Author

Level 1

19 points

Mar 22, 2010 8:28 AM in response to Mark Jalbert

Thanks. I'll look for the culprit, although I already have some suspects 😉

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