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

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

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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