GNU bug report logs - #17495
chgrp: mention of being a member of the target group

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Wouter Thielen <wouter <at> morannon.org>
Subject: bug#17495: closed (Re: bug#17495: chgrp: mention of being a
 member of the target group)
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 17:58:03 +0000

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Your bug report

#17495: chgrp: mention of being a member of the target group

which was filed against the coreutils package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to 17495 <at> debbugs.gnu.org.

-- 
17495: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=17495
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems

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From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Wouter Thielen <wouter <at> morannon.org>
Cc: 17495-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#17495: chgrp: mention of being a member of the target group
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 18:57:41 +0100

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On 06/19/2014 02:34 PM, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> The variation on some systems where users can give away files
> is discussed at the "APPLICATION USAGE" and "RATIONALE" sections of:
> http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/chown.html
> 
> We should mention this _portable_ behavior in the info doc at least
> for chown and chgrp

Done in the attached.

thanks,
Pádraig.

[chgrp-docs.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

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From: Wouter Thielen <wouter <at> morannon.org>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: chgrp: mention of being a member of the target group
Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 09:49:23 +0900

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Hi,

Here is a very common usecase:

sudo chgrp www-data dir

in a deployment script.

I have always used "sudo" with this because I didn't know why I was getting
an operation permitted error when doing so. Until I found out that if the
effective user is a member of the target group www-data, the sudo isn't
needed.

The Wikipedia clearly says that:

The *chgrp* (from *ch*ange *gr*ou*p*)
command<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_(computing)> may
be used by unprivileged
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privilege_(Computing)> users
on Unix-like <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like> systems to change the
group associated with a file system object (such as a file, directory, or
link) *to one of which they are a member*.

I am wondering why the chgrp manpage or info pages do not mention anything
about that. It would be very helpful to add that piece of very crucial
information to the manpage/info pages.

Best regards,

-- 
Wouter Thielen

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