GNU bug report logs - #43162
chgrp clears setgid even when group is not changed

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Message #8 received at 43162 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
Cc: 43162 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#43162: chgrp clears setgid even when group is not changed
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2020 15:24:18 -0700

On 9/1/20 2:25 PM, Karl Berry wrote:
> Is it necessary for chgrp to clear setgid on directories even when the
> group is not actually changed? In my life at least, it is rather
> annoying.

The chgrp command isn't doing that directly; it's merely invoking the fchownat 
syscall, and the syscall is clearing setgid.

POSIX requires chgrp to behave like the chown syscall even if the file's group 
is already correct, and it appears that the syscall clears the setgid bit on 
your platform (a behavior that POSIX allows, and even requires for regular 
files). So partly this is a platform issue (I don't observe your problem on my 
Fedora 31 box, for example).

I don't see an easy way to change chgrp without departing from POSIX, or perhaps 
adding a run-time option to the chown and chgrp commands. Not sure it's worth it.

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