Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

ACL found but not expected on . . . applications

Like others who've posted here, I stupidly did an "apply to enclosed items" when trying to fix a permission problem on a non-Apple application. I should have targeted my repair to that one application, but assumed there were more permission problems among Applications. (After moving a user to this new computer, I'd been dealing with quite a few permissions issues, but mostly on her work files, so I was a little distracted.) I realize the long list of "ACL found but not expected" messages when doing a "repair permissions" are not really a problem, but I'd like to get them fixed - get rid of the clutter. (If there was a real permission issue, it would be difficult to see among the clutter.)

Anyway, I've read (from V.K.) to do the following: In terminal, enter:

sudo chmod -RN /Applications
sudo chmod +a "everyone deny delete" /Applications /Applications/Utilities

then: "next delete everything in Applications except for Timemachine.app and the Utilities folder. next restore all that stuff from Time machine. next delete all contents of the Utilities folder and then restore it from TM. repair permissions afterward. that should fix all permissions back to what they were."

Problem is, I don't have these applications backed up in Time Machine. (I back up five computers to a tape drive through Retrospect, and only back up our work and certain other specific "user created" files. In case of a total crash, I figure I'd generally rather "start fresh" with whatever OS a new computer would come with.)

So, would it work to do the Terminal thing first, then reinstall the applications from the OS DVD via Pacifist? I guess any applications that have updated since the OS DVD would then be updated via Software Update?

Any other ideas? (Kappy mentioned entering "sudo chown -R root:admin /Applications" in Terminal, and nothing about having to restore
applications.)

Other than this annoyance, the computer is working fine.

Thanks,

Ginny

iMac 21.5, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 16, 2010 2:07 PM

24 replies

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Apr 27, 2010 11:47 AM in response to Ginny Pressly

Okay, here is the skinny on it:
First, the Good News is: The "everyone deny delete" ACL is a generic one and really is harmless.
Why the chmod command won't remove it is a bit of a mystery though, unless the OS is, for
some reason, reinstalling them as fast as you are taking them off.

It appears to affect only on the Apple apps, so if everything is working okay, I would say that it would
be perfectly safe to ignore them. Unless you are still experiencing problems, don't waste any more time
on it. Since they (ACL's) all seem to be placed on the "_CodeSignature/CodeDirectory" inside each
app, it is probably caused by a glitch in the Receipt Database file, but whatever it is, it appears to be
harmless other than the annoying message(s) you get when after running repair permissions.

Kj ♘

Apr 27, 2010 12:02 PM in response to KJK555

Thanks for your take on this. Yup, I'm pretty much aware these are harmless, just annoying. There has been nothing strange going on with the computer. Guess I just feel embarrassed - I "accidentally" created the problem, and now I can't fix it! I have, truly, spent enough time on this, and the user will be back mid-day tomorrow.

Ginny

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Apr 27, 2010 12:46 PM in response to Ginny Pressly

You may not have caused it. That problem may have already existed before.

Apr 27, 2010 1:04 PM in response to KJK555

Unfortunately, though, I don't recall this problem until I got in a rush trying to fix some permission issues after moving the user to her new computer. The permissions repair was pretty clean until that time. Guess whomever inherits supporting this equipment after me might think it "just happened," though!

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Apr 27, 2010 1:23 PM in response to Ginny Pressly

The good news is Apple's on your side too. 😉

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448

from the above bulletin:
"You can safely ignore these messages. You can also usually ignore any "ACL found but not
expected..." message. These messages can occur if you change permissions on a file or directory.
These messages are accurate but are generally not a cause for concern."

Apr 27, 2010 2:02 PM in response to KJK555

Yes, guess I'm not the first to have this problem. At least I do know what I did to create it!

Jul 13, 2010 3:20 PM in response to Ginny Pressly

I followed all the suggestions and none of them worked for me.

Oct 2, 2010 9:29 AM in response to Christofer Michaels

I have a potential issue when this situation is present. Not sure if it is related, but wasn't the case when the ACL issue wasn't happening.

I am trying to apply a license to Parallels <actually this is happening to 2 different software packages>. It is the emailed license after I bought the new upgrade. The old Parallels woirked but the upgrade removes it and now it can not be licensed. Just shakes it's head and says invalid license. It isn't invalid. I have typed it, copy/pasted it, etc., not difference.
It appears where the license file is being stored is not allowing me to open a plist file. I am using the admin account on my system.

Also, after trying the chmod -RN /Applications fix, I ran permissions again in DU, and it repaired all the acl's by reapplying them.
Someone saud earlier, that on a single user system these are useless and I agree.

Anything else I can try??

Thanks

Gary K.

Level 1

104 points

Oct 23, 2010 10:19 PM in response to Christofer Michaels

You can get rid of ACL's using chmod as follows:

The command to recursively remove all ACLs from the files in a working directory and its subdirectories is:

sudo echo | sudo chmod -R -E ./*

Running the above command will remove ACL's from your entire volume. Not ready for that yet?

Here's a more limited approach. Suppose I found some unexpected ACL’s for some fonts in the ./Library/Fonts folder. I run the command like this:

sudo echo | sudo chmod -R -E ./Library/Fonts/*

You will need to enter your administrator password.

Then the command will run and when you repair permissions the next time, you will not get messages saying it encountered unexpected ACL's on the relevant files in the ./Library/Fonts folder.

I have heard people say that removing ACL's entirely is not a a bad thing to do on Leopard and Snow Leopard installations. I don't know enough about it, so I am cautious with it.

ACL found but not expected on . . . applications