Thank you for the considered reply Daniel. I'm currently in the process of reinstalling Windows XP on the few workstations at home that still use it (after a few too many bad experienced with Vista) and I'll definitely set up the new user accounts to match on the new Windows installs and the file server.
Simon Ives. > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:51:29 +1000 > From: Daniel Mons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: File Permissions - Ubuntu Server > To: ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Simon Ives wrote: > | I'm running Ubuntu Server 8.04 and I need to change the permissions for > | a large quantity of files and directories. > | > | I've got a directory named 'music' that I share with the home network. > | This includes other Linux boxes that access this directory via nfs and > | some Windows XP boxes accessing it via samba. I've just transferred > | around 80gb of music files and directories from a Windows drive and I > | need a command to alter the permissions of all the files as read/write > | for everyone. > > The best way is to properly integrate your authentication systems, or at > the very least ensure that user accounts that exist on the Windows > machines also exist on the Linux machines and within Samba with the same > passwords. i.e.: your windows username/password is also added to Linux > via the "useradd" and "passwd" commands, and to Samba via the "smbpasswd > - -a" command. > > Failing that, go to the directory in question, and type: > > chmod -R a+rwX /directoryname > > I should note that this is highly frowned upon by Linux sysadmins (which > I am one). Opening up world access to your file system is a poor > substitute for properly configuring your services and authentication. > > What the above command does is recursively add read and write > permissions for all (User, Group and Other). Additionally, the upper > case X adds "execute" permissions to directories ONLY. In order to > actually enter/use a directory, execute permissions must be enabled on it. > > Whatever you do, DO NOT run "chmod -R 777 /dirname". This will also > clobber standard files with the execute permission, making any plain > file executable. This has potentially dire consequences should someone > try to run one of them. > > | > | Further, is there a way that I can set all newly created directories and > | files within this particular directory to inherit the file permissions > | of the parent directory? > > In your smb.conf on a per-share basis, set the "create mask" and > "directory mask" options as needed. In your case, "create mask = 0666" > and "directory mask = 0777" will ensure all files and directories are > created with the correct permissions (again, I would hope you > investigate matching up your user accounts instead, and set these to > 0640 and 0750 respectively). > > "man smb.conf" for more help on your Samba configuration, and more > detailed explanations on all of the above. > > - -Dan > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) > > iD8DBQFIoNCBeFJDv0P9Qb8RAlI8AJ9t7Kpx6gc37xLZ9AhIoz4TVPdjVACeNH84 > Cm1pGjj/3jNmKr9U7TTqdGY= > =6Xt2 > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ubuntu-au mailing list ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au