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file permissions - how to edit a user account

file permissions - how to edit a user account that is creating files with permissions that are not wanted anymore.


i understand how to reset permissions on files or folders, but i do not understand how to reset the permissions a user is "creating".


ie, each time this user creates a file, the file needs to be manually edited for its permissions. so i need to edit the user's settings, but i can't find where to do that.


this is a home office setup. we have two users with admin privileges. our imac is acting as a server of sorts - it holds common files that need to be edited by both users. the other user is typically working on shared files from a macbook over wifi.


osx 10.6.8


any help is greatly appreciated - thanks up front!


adam

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 30, 2012 10:48 AM

Reply
8 replies

Mar 30, 2012 1:05 PM in response to acinpdx

There's no reliable way to change a user account so that all of the files its user creates automatically have some custom permissions setting applied.


But what you can do is use ACLs to make a sharing folder, wherein all files copied to or newly created in the folder get a custom permissions setting. If that sounds like what you want, post back and I'll post the details.

Mar 30, 2012 9:46 PM in response to fane_j

How about setting a custom umask in </etc/launchd-user.conf>?


My recollection is that this does work in Snow Leopard (for all users) but not currently in Lion because the Lion Finder does not respect the umask settings.


The utility TinkerTool System (not TinkerTool) has a friendly GUI for this. This is the default:

.

.User uploaded file

Unchecking all the boxes and restarting will set the user umask to 000, granting read-write permissions on new objetcts for all users.

Mar 30, 2012 11:25 PM in response to jsd2

Changing the umask does not produce reliable results. Many apps, including Apple's own Finder, will override any custom umask setting and apply the OS X standard set of read and write for the creator, and read only for group and others. This is true even in Snow Leopard, and going all the way back to the beginning of OS X 10.0.


ACLs on a specific folder or set of folders is the best way to set this up.

Mar 30, 2012 11:49 PM in response to Király

Király wrote:


Changing the umask does not produce reliable results. Many apps, including Apple's own Finder, will override any custom umask setting and apply the OS X standard set of read and write for the creator, and read only for group and others. This is true even in Snow Leopard

I cannot argue with you, because I've never tried or tested it myself. However, this KB article


<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2202>


states the opposite:


"In Mac OS X v10.5.3 and later, you can create the file /etc/launchd-user.conf with the contents "umask nnn". […]


This will set the user's umask for all applications they launch, such as Finder, TextEdit, or Final Cut Pro, and control the permissions set on new files created by any of these applications."

Apr 1, 2012 3:30 PM in response to fane_j

The document you linked says it's for OS X Server. I don't know if the same rings true for the client version of OS X.


acinpdx, ACLs are Access Control Lists; basically special sets of permissions that can be applied to override the standard POSIX permissions. A nice thing about them is that they can be set on a folder so that each item added has the folder's ACL permission settings inherited.

file permissions - how to edit a user account

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