[ubuntu-uk] rsync chgrp problem - advice, please?

[luxxius]

Kris Marsh wrote:
> On 6/7/07, Robert McWilliam <rmcw at allmail.net> wrote:
<snip>
>> I've just done some playing here and found the same problem with
>> accessing a directory with drw-rw-r-- permissions. The problem goes
>> away if I add executable permissions (making the permissions 764 for
>> u+x). I'm not sure why you need executable permissions on a directory
>> to see it's contents though...

> How clumsy of me.
> sudo -Rf chown diana:diana music
> chmod -R 755 music
> '755' are the standard file/folder permissions on Ubuntu. It means
> anyone can read/access the file/folder and only the owner can write.
> Sorry for adding to the confusion on this thread :-)


Robert / Kris >>> I've just read your posts.

It seems that after running

find ~/music -group diana -exec chgrp root {} \; -exec chmod 664 {} \;

I lost all access to the files in my music directory and subdirectories, 
to scary extent that Nautilus had no information about the directories 
or files - their sizes, permissions, type:  all vanished! And I could 
not 'sudo cd' to any of the directories - no permission (?!)

But if I did sudo su, I could ls the contents of directories and see the 
file details with ls -lah.

I'm afraid I gave up at this point, renamed the music directory, and 
created a new version from the usb drive I'd rsync-ed it to last night 
(ignoring any consequences of the chgrp errors that generated this 
thread in the first place!)

This restored everything with diana as owner and group.  But my music 
server software needs group access (I use slimserver), and wasn't being 
allowed it (It either has its own group - though I couldn't find it 
listed - or it uses root, which it associates with during 
installation???)  Anyway, eventually I worked out the I had to chgroup 
everything in ~/music to root, and I chmoded everything to 775.

And when I adopted this same approach with what I thought was the 
irretrievably scrunched old music folder, low and behold it was 
restored!  (Aren't permissions astonishingly powerful - and inscrutable!)

I guess it was the "-exec chmod 664 {} \;" in the original script that 
caused the problems.  755 would probably be ok (though as 775 seems to 
be letting me play all my music, and I've had enough for today, I'm 
going to leave it as it is!)  So, by trial and error, I (almost) got to 
what Kris advised.  I was reassured when I did eventually see your last 
post, Kris.

And I'm glad to know I can simply ignore the rsync chgrp errors as being 
a product of the MS file system's ignorance!

Many thanks to everyone whose given time and attention to this thread. 
I've learned a great deal (though I can't say I've had a relaxing 
morning!);  and I hope the thread has entertained the more experienced 
members during coffee breaks.

Best wishes
--
Diana