How to remove read only flag from home directories

Question

How to remove read only flag from home directories

We installed a mac pro server with snow leopard 10.7. We only have windows xp clients to connect to it using smb. I have the server set up as a domain server. I have copied the teachers files from the old Novell server into their home directories on the new apple server using passenger. All of the files are set as read only and the teachers cannot save any changes made to their files without saving them as a new name. Is there a global way to change all the teachers files to no longer be read only?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), moving our organization over to mac

Posted on Jun 28, 2011 3:06 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 28, 2011 8:05 PM in response to kathyfromsaintlouis

Yes, there is, if you're comfortable with the command line.

Issue the following command in Terminal:

sudo chmod -R 755 /<path to home directories>

If you need a breakdown of the command:

sudo allows you to run the command as root (it will ask for your password)

chmod is the command used to change permissions

-R is for recursive (start at the specified point and keep going into subfolders)

755 sets the permissions to owner - read and write, group - read only and others - read only (adjust your numbers as needed for your situation

The path to your home directories should be entered as an absolute path for best results. For example: /Users

Keep in mind that ALL subfolders and files in the /Users directory will be modified with the permissions you specify, so make sure you know exactly what's in there and how the permissions will affect it.

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Answer 2

Jun 29, 2011 4:30 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller

So if the home directory for the teachers is t_home in a volume called Teacher, would I enter the following command:

sudo chmod -R 755 /Volumes/Teacher/t_home

Once the permissions are set, can I just add an ACL for the group students to have no access to these folders?

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Answer 3

Jun 29, 2011 6:28 AM in response to kathyfromsaintlouis

Exactly.

Alternatively, and probably a better option would be to use 750 as the permissions, which will give Others no access. This is of course assuming your students and teachers aren't in the same group.

Edit: I would also recommend having a good backup before making this (or any) change to your system, just in case.

Message was edited by: John.Kitzmiller

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Answer 4

Jun 29, 2011 8:26 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller

Looks like the files that were moved over do not have the teachers as the owners of their files. Is there a way in terminal to assign the teacher as the owner of all the files in their home directory?

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Answer 5

Jun 29, 2011 8:56 AM in response to kathyfromsaintlouis

Yes.

sudo chown -R <owner>:<group> /<path to home directory>

For example, lets assume you have a teacher named Jane Smith, and her shortname is jsmith. Let's also assume your teachers are all in a group called Teachers with a shortname of teachers.

sudo chown -R jsmith:teachers /Volumes/Teacher/t_home/jsmith

It is important that you use the shortnames of the users and groups, not the common names.

Follow that up with the chmod command from earlier and you should be good to go.

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Answer 6

Jun 30, 2011 10:23 AM in response to John.Kitzmiller

John,

You have been very helpful.

I still have one user (one of the first users that I played with permissions with) that is not able to save over an old file. Can you tell me how to correct permissions to his home directory. I did the commands above and they are not working for this user.

lhssmac1:~ admin$ ls -l /volumes/Teacher/t_home/kriea

total 0

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Jun 4 13:13 Desktop

drwxr-xr-x+ 72 kriea teachers 2448 Jun 27 11:21 Documents

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 kriea teachers 136 Jun 4 13:13 Downloads

drwxr-xr-x+ 22 kriea teachers 748 Jun 27 07:24 Favorites

drwxr-xr-x+ 22 kriea teachers 748 Jun 4 13:13 Library

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Jun 4 13:13 Movies

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Jun 4 13:13 Music

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 kriea teachers 136 Jun 4 13:13 Pictures

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 kriea teachers 136 Jun 4 13:13 Public

drwxr-xr-x+ 6 kriea teachers 204 Jun 4 13:13 Sites

lhssmac1:~ admin$ ls -l /volumes/Teacher/t_home/kriea/documents

total 51600

drwxr-xr-x+ 10 kriea teachers 340 May 15 19:05 1818

drwxr-xr-x+ 6 kriea teachers 204 Jan 3 12:24 2009-2010 calculus

drwxr-xr-x+ 17 kriea teachers 578 Jun 20 10:02 2010-2011 calculus

drwxr-xr-x+ 7 kriea teachers 238 Jun 20 10:02 2011-2012 calculus

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 kriea teachers 136 Jun 10 09:21 ACT

drwxr-xr-x+ 18 kriea teachers 612 Jun 8 11:43 AP

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 466028 Jun 4 13:13 About Stacks.pdf

drwxr-xr-x+ 8 kriea teachers 272 Jan 13 07:45 Academic Dean

drwxr-xr-x+ 21 kriea teachers 714 Jan 3 12:24 AdvancED

drwxr-xr-x+ 15 kriea teachers 510 May 16 20:21 Algebra 2-Trig

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 24576 Apr 8 2008 AutoRecovery save of Democracy Now.asd

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 184320 Mar 29 2010 AutoRecovery save of Document1.asd

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 26624 Sep 15 2009 AutoRecovery save of message and outline.asd

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 39936 Jul 30 2009 AutoRecovery save of schedule change appointments sheet.asd

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 24576 Sep 15 2009 AutoRecovery save of verses and prayers.asd

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 318 Apr 5 2004 CLASSxp.lnk

drwxr-xr-x+ 91 kriea teachers 3094 Apr 28 16:11 Calculus

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Apr 27 2010 Evaluations

drwxr-xr-x+ 22 kriea teachers 748 Jun 1 08:20 Favorites

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 9482 Apr 9 2010 Foreign language numbers.xlsx

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 5214208 Dec 26 2006 GRADEBOOK.snp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 4796416 Aug 20 2007 GRADEBOOK06_07.TWE

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 3661824 Aug 20 2007 Gradebook07_08.old

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 5685248 May 21 2008 Gradebook07_08.snp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 5029888 May 28 2008 Gradebook07_08.twe

drwxr-xr-x+ 20 kriea teachers 680 Jan 3 12:24 HH calculus

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Jan 3 12:24 HH solutions

drwxr-xr-x+ 8 kriea teachers 272 Feb 10 09:20 Jostens

drwxr-xr-x+ 9 kriea teachers 306 Jun 10 2010 MOPS

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 kriea teachers 136 Jan 3 12:24 Magazine Drive

drwxr-xr-x+ 2 kriea teachers 68 Jun 27 06:55 My Music

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Sep 22 2007 My Videos

drwxr-xr-x+ 2 kriea teachers 68 Jun 27 06:55 My eBooks

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 kriea teachers 136 Jun 27 06:56 MyTIData

drwxr-xr-x+ 8 kriea teachers 272 May 10 14:11 Nativity Miguel

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 31744 Dec 3 2007 Normal.dot

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 271360 Aug 16 2004 Outlook.pst

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 271360 Sep 22 2007 Outlook1.pst

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 271360 May 12 2008 Outlook2.pst

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 271360 Jan 6 2009 Outlook3.pst

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 kriea teachers 170 Jun 7 15:24 Personal

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 kriea teachers 170 Jun 27 11:21 Personal Files

drwxr-xr-x+ 7 kriea teachers 238 Aug 26 2010 Presentations

drwxr-xr-x@ 1078 kriea teachers 36652 Aug 10 2007 Recent

drwxr-xr-x+ 22 kriea teachers 748 Jan 21 08:50 Registrar

drwxr-xr-x+ 35 kriea teachers 1190 Mar 30 11:07 Roster requests

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Mar 30 2009 SMART Notebook

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 kriea teachers 136 Apr 15 2008 Seminar

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Feb 1 2010 Sign up sheets

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 kriea teachers 136 May 8 2009 Small groups

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 kriea teachers 136 Mar 30 2009 Student teacher info

drwxr-xr-x+ 2 kriea teachers 68 Jun 27 06:56 Templates

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 kriea teachers 170 Jan 6 2010 Trivia

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Jun 27 06:56 WebEx

drwxr-xr-x+ 13 kriea teachers 442 May 16 18:19 chapels

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 kriea teachers 76 Apr 14 2005 desktop.ini

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Jun 28 10:52 log on info

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 Jun 16 2010 logos

drwxr-xr-x+ 20 kriea teachers 680 Jan 29 17:37 my close up

drwxr-xr-x+ 30 kriea teachers 1020 Apr 21 15:27 recommendations

drwxr-xr-x+ 11 kriea teachers 374 Apr 13 15:41 substitute plans

drwxr-xr-x+ 9 kriea teachers 306 Jan 3 12:24 substitutes

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 kriea teachers 102 May 12 10:40 surveys

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 kriea teachers 162 Aug 11 2006 ~$Normal.dot

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 19456 Mar 7 08:07 ~WRD0001.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 kriea teachers 0 Mar 7 08:07 ~WRL0002.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 kriea teachers 26112 Sep 15 2009 ~WRL0409.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 kriea teachers 12800 Mar 28 2008 ~ar2C0D.xar

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 kriea teachers 40960 Apr 26 14:36 ~ar5A7B.xar

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Answer 7

Jun 30, 2011 12:15 PM in response to kathyfromsaintlouis

It would be helpful to know which file the user is not able to save over.

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Answer 8

Jun 30, 2011 12:23 PM in response to John.Kitzmiller

files inside of 2011-2012 calculus is one folder for sure. Once he does a save as on a file then he can work with it just fine. Here are the permissions for those files:

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 141236 Jun 28 09:46 41BA7882.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 142467 Jun 28 11:38 58F1B8E7.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 141183 Jun 28 09:46 71F1ABE0.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 142414 Jun 28 09:53 81D80FFB.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 140686 Jun 27 11:45 8407049D.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 151141 Jun 30 09:44 9DF56779.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 140759 Jun 27 11:45 CBBBDDB3.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 142287 Jun 20 14:36 E2816DBC.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 151157 Jun 20 14:37 E7817726.tmp

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 199897 Jun 3 13:06 Quiz 1A.docx

-rwxr-----+ 1 kriea teachers 151258 Jun 30 13:43 Quiz 1B.docx

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 140662 Jun 30 09:44 Quiz 1C.docx

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 23552 May 28 2009 reading worksheet 1.1.doc

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 37888 Apr 29 10:39 reading worksheet 1.2.doc

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 23552 Jul 28 2009 reading worksheet 1.3.doc

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 28160 May 20 00:57 reading worksheet 1.4.doc

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 26112 May 20 01:01 reading worksheet 1.5.doc

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 25088 Jul 28 2009 reading worksheet 1.6.doc

-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 kriea teachers 23040 May 20 01:08 reading worksheet 1.7.doc

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 kriea teachers 162 Jun 30 09:44 ~$uiz 1B.docx

-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 kriea teachers 162 Jun 27 11:44 ~$uiz 1C.docx

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Answer 9

Jun 30, 2011 12:32 PM in response to kathyfromsaintlouis

As a point of curiosity, what happens when you run the chmod command on this teacher's home directory? Does it report back any errors or does everything seem fine?

Either way, I suspect the files in question might be locked. You could try this command:

chflags -R nouchg /volumes/Teacher/t_home/kriea

Which will unlock all of the files.

From there, re-run the chmod command and see if that does it for you.

Message was edited by: John.Kitzmiller for clarity.

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Answer 10

Jun 30, 2011 12:43 PM in response to John.Kitzmiller

Tried that and there is still a network or file permission error.

No errors are reported when running the chmod command.

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