Applications folder owner & permissions

Question

Level 3

569 points

Applications folder owner & permissions

I've just tried to move an application to the Applications folder and I got a prompt asking to authenticate because the folder can not be modified. I'm running as an admin and this is the first time that it has occurred.

I'm running 10.5.8 with all the security updates. Does anyone know if any of the recent updates has changed the owner and permissions of the Applications folder?

Now the owner and permissions in my Applications folder are:

system - Read & Write
wheel - Read only
everyone - Read only

Is this the same for everyone?

Thanks in advanced for any help.

Cheers

15.4 MBP 2.33, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 13, 2010 6:05 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Király

Level 6

10,017 points

Sep 13, 2010 6:09 PM in response to Rafael Marino

Launch Disk Utility and click Repair Permissions. That should fix it.

As for how it got changed, it might have been a bad third party software installer. Sometimes a developer will write one that changes permissions where it shouldn't. The problem used to be much more prevalent in the early days of OS X.

Reply

Answer 2

Rafael Marino Author

Level 3

569 points

Sep 13, 2010 6:12 PM in response to Király

I've already done that and the owner and permissions are the ones I posted in my fisrt post.

What are the owner and permissions in your Applications folder?

Thanks.

Reply

Answer 3

BobHarris

Level 9

52,949 points

Sep 13, 2010 6:30 PM in response to Rafael Marino

My Mac OS X 10.5.8 says

system - read & write
admin - read & write
everyone - read only

update (even though I was marked helpful)

This is from my Mac mini


/bin/ls -ldeO@ /Applications
drwxrwxr-x+ 43 root admin - 1462 Jul 23 19:19 /Applications
 0: user:root allow add_file,writeattr,writeextattr
 1: user:root allow add_file,writeattr,writeextattr
 2: group:everyone deny delete

This is from my MacBook


 /bin/ls -ldeO@ /Applications
drwxrwxr-x@ 100 root admin - 3400 Sep 11 21:06 /Applications
 com.apple.FinderInfo 32 
 0: group:everyone deny delete

Why they are not the same, I do not know.

Message was edited by: BobHarris

Reply

Answer 4

Király

Level 6

10,017 points

Sep 13, 2010 6:27 PM in response to Rafael Marino

Mine are system:admin, owner and group r+w, others read only, with the Deny Delete ACL set. Something is screwy with your Mac if a permission repair won't fix it.

Open Terminal and enter this:

ls -Olde@ /Applications

What are the results?

Reply

Answer 5

Rafael Marino Author

Level 3

569 points

Sep 13, 2010 6:30 PM in response to Király

drwxr-xr-x+ 235 root wheel - 7990 14 Sep 00:54 /Applications
0: group:everyone deny delete

Reply

Answer 6

Király

Level 6

10,017 points

Sep 13, 2010 6:33 PM in response to Rafael Marino

Try these:

sudo chmod 775 /Applications
sudo chgrp admin /Applications

That will fix the permissions. But why Disk Utility won't repair it remains a mystery...

Reply

Answer 7

Rafael Marino Author

Level 3

569 points

Sep 13, 2010 6:38 PM in response to Király

Now I get

drwxrwxr-x+ 235 root admin - 7990 14 Sep 00:54 /Applications
0: group:everyone deny delete

Is this how it is supposed to be?

Thanks.

Reply

Answer 8

Cjung

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2010 7:43 PM in response to Rafael Marino

I am having the very same problem with the same operating system.
I did run the disk utility and that did not fix the problem, but you lost me after that with the other posts. Could someone please help by explaining how you changed the rest of the problem?
Thank You so much!

Reply

Answer 9

Király

Level 6

10,017 points

Sep 13, 2010 8:04 PM in response to Rafael Marino

Yes, it is correct now.

Reply

Answer 10

Rafael Marino Author

Level 3

569 points

Sep 13, 2010 8:13 PM in response to Király

Thanks for your help. 🙂

Reply

Answer 11

Rafael Marino Author

Level 3

569 points

Sep 13, 2010 8:14 PM in response to Cjung

Open a terminal window and enter the commands Király posted earlier.

Reply

Answer 12

Cjung

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2010 8:40 PM in response to Rafael Marino

Okay so I did this:

ls -Olde@ /Applications
drwxrwxr-x+ 49 root wheel - 1666 Sep 13 18:57 /Applications
0: group:everyone deny delete

Now what?
Sorry, I have never done anything like this before.
Thanks for your help

Reply

Answer 13

Király

Level 6

10,017 points

Sep 13, 2010 8:41 PM in response to Cjung

Run the other commands in my other post. Just follow the thread...

Reply

Answer 14

Cjung

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2010 9:11 PM in response to Király

I had entered the other commands and nothing changed. I restarted my computer and then was able to move programs and other things into my application folder.
Thanks for your help!

Reply

Answer 15

Jim-K

Level 1

9 points

Sep 16, 2010 7:37 AM in response to Rafael Marino

I am suddenly having exactly the same issue with my Applications folder. Disk Utility and Onyx will not fix it (ran Repair permissions and rebooted with both).

Not sure what is causing this.

Reply