GNU bug report logs - #6913
change file ownership/permissions from root to user fail even with success confirmation

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

From: John McMillan <mcmillan <at> skybest.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: change file ownership/permissions from root to user fail even with
	success confirmation
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:19:26 -0400

Need to change file ownership & permissions from root to my user/group 
(john/john). Using the test file Augustine.doc, I issue the command in 
terminal:

sudo chown john:john Augustine.doc

No error message returned but checking properties of the file it still 
is shown as root.

I then try it as root by entering su, the root passwork, and then 
entering the following command:

root <at> johndesk:~# chown -c john:john /media/C:/"Documents and 
Settings"/John/"My Documents"/Word/John/Augustine.doc

to which I receive the following confirmation -
changed ownership of `/media/C:/Documents and Settings/John/My 
Documents/Word/John/Augustine.doc' to john:john

However, again the properties/permissions tab of the file show owner & 
group as both root along with the footnote "You are not the owner; so 
you cannot change these permissions.".

Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid)
Kernel 2.6.32-24-generic (#41-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 19 01:38:40 UTC 2010)
GNOME 2.30.2 (Ubuntu 2010-06-25)
GCC version 4.4.3 (x86_64-linux-gnu)
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+, 2G memory

Bug report posted @ Ubuntu forums with no replies   
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1556760
Bug report also filed at Ubuntu Launchpad   
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/623390

John McMillan

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

From: Philipp Thomas <pth <at> suse.de>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6913: change file ownership/permissions from root to user
	fail even with success confirmation
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:23:07 +0200

* John McMillan (mcmillan <at> skybest.com) [20100825 19:06]:

> to which I receive the following confirmation -
> changed ownership of `/media/C:/Documents and Settings/John/My
> Documents/Word/John/Augustine.doc' to john:john

Looks like this is a DOS/WIN partition, i.e. vfat or ntfs. These file
systems don't know of unix style access rights.  Owning user are group are
set via mount options (see 'man 8 mount') and can't be changed by chown. 
This is a shortcoming of the file system, not of chown.

Philipp

Message #11 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Philipp Thomas <pth <at> suse.de>
Cc: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6913: change file ownership/permissions from root to user
	fail	even with success confirmation
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:26:48 -0600

On 08/25/2010 11:23 AM, Philipp Thomas wrote:
> * John McMillan (mcmillan <at> skybest.com) [20100825 19:06]:
>
>> to which I receive the following confirmation -
>> changed ownership of `/media/C:/Documents and Settings/John/My
>> Documents/Word/John/Augustine.doc' to john:john
>
> Looks like this is a DOS/WIN partition, i.e. vfat or ntfs. These file
> systems don't know of unix style access rights.  Owning user are group are
> set via mount options (see 'man 8 mount') and can't be changed by chown.
> This is a shortcoming of the file system, not of chown.

Additionally, if the file system claims that chown() succeeded when it 
in fact did nothing, then that would be a bug in the file system driver, 
to be fixed by the kernel folks (that is, it is not coreutils' job to 
detect whether the chown() syscall has a buggy return value for your 
file system).

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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