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Allow others access files in your home directory by granting them "search" permissions.

Create a publicly searchable, but not listable, subdirectory to your home directory, ~/pub.

Create two subdirectories of ~/pub, both searchable and listable to only the members of the groups music and wrestle, respectively: ~/pub/music and ~/pub/wrestle. Note that you will need to consider the group owners of the directories, as well as permissions.

Create the files ~/pub/music/lyrics and ~/pub/wrestle/plan. The files should be readable and writable by members of the music and wrestle groups, respectively.

That's the assignment. I know how to use chmod but I'm not sure how to allow others access to files in home directory by granting them "search" permissions. I tried going to chmod o+x /home but i was denied permission. Any help?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rubberman

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Brief summary and key points (builds on question and ’s hint): the directory "execute" bit is what permits traversal (finding a named entry); the "read" bit is what permits listing. The failed chmod o+x /home happened because /home is typically owned by root; only root can change that. Grant traversal to the target path by setting execute on each parent directory the owner controls (for example the home directory itself) and then set the proper group ownership and permissions on the ~/pub subtree.

Practical sequence (owner-level commands; run as the home-directory owner):

mkdir -p ~/pub/music ~/pub/wrestle

# allow traversal into pub for others, but not listing
chmod 711 ~/pub

# make group-owned, setgid so new files inherit group
chgrp music   ~/pub/music
chmod 2770    ~/pub/music

chgrp wrestle ~/pub/wrestle
chmod 2770    ~/pub/wrestle

# create the files and give group read/write
touch ~/pub/music/lyrics
chgrp music   ~/pub/music/lyrics
chmod 660     ~/pub/music/lyrics

touch ~/pub/wrestle/plan
chgrp wrestle ~/pub/wrestle/plan
chmod 660     ~/pub/wrestle/plan

# if traversal to ~/pub is blocked, ensure execute on the home directory:
chmod o+x ~

Notes and troubleshooting: verify permissions and ownership with ls -ld and inspect the whole path with namei -l ~/pub/music/lyrics to see which component blocks access. chgrp will only succeed if the caller owns the file and is allowed to set that group (or root); adding users to the music/wrestle groups requires administrative action. New files may not be group-writable because of umask; the setgid on the directory (chmod g+s / numeric 2) ensures group ownership inheritance, and setfacl (if available) can set default group permissions, for example:

setfacl -m g:music:rwx  ~/pub/music
setfacl -d -m g:music:rwx ~/pub/music

Avoid changing global /home permissions as root unless system policy allows it; prefer enabling traversal only on the home directory and on the ~/pub subtree.

Member Avatar for rubberman

Sorry, but we don't do your homework for you. Show us what you have tried and we can help you find the errors of your ways, and means. Remember, for *nix systems, there are user, group, and "other" permissions on directories as well as files. So, a hint - to list a directory you need r (read) permission on it. To access a file or subdirectory in the directory, you need x (execute) permission. Normally, the owner has all (read/write/execute) permissions on a directory, and they can limit members of the directory's group or others as necessary.

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