Files moved to a shared project folder retain original Group

[Ioannis Vranos]

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 1:45 AM, John Hupp <lubuntu at prpcompany.com> wrote:
> I got started on this general topic in the thread "Make new user sub-folders
> inherit parent permissions," but wanted to start a new thread to reflect the
> current state of development.
>
> The goal: A shared folder tree that a group of users can freely edit
> (suitable for a project team, for instance).
>
> After multiple exchanges here and a lot of reading, I concluded that the
> usual approach is to set the folder's SetGID bit after changing the folder's
> Group from the default owner-named group to a group that contains all the
> required users.
>
> So in my little scenario with just user1 and user2:
> - Add user1 and user2 to the existing "users" group
> - As root, create /home/Shared
> - Edit /home/Shared ownership and permissions:
>         Owner: root --> user1 (maybe I didn't have to, but it seemed odd
> retaining root as the owner)
>         Group: root --> users
>         Change Content: Only owner --> Only owner and group
> - chmod g+s /home/Shared (this takes care of the Set-Group-ID bit)
> - Create symlinks to /home/Shared in the user1 and user2 home directories
>
> Then I confirmed what some had already noted as a problem with this
> arrangement: It works fine with sub-folders and files created afresh in
> Shared, but folders/files copied or moved in from elsewhere retain their
> original group, and are not editable by all users in "users" until the group
> property is manually reassigned to "users."
>
> The only workaround (to manual group reassignment) I have uncovered so far
> is to create a cron job that periodically fixes such files/folders.

Setting a cron job to apply ownership to /home/shared, every minute or
so, looks interesting.

The only thing about standard filesystem ownership, unmentioned in
this thread is the sticky bit (not useful in your case).

For more complex user access control, Access Control List (ACL) is
used, but I do not know much about it.


> Is there anything better?  A modest little daemon that can be set to monitor
> the folder tree?

May be there is some such service indeed.

Just googled, and found this: http://goo.gl/QvqPV

-- 
Ioannis Vranos

http://cppsoftware.binhoster.com