Ubuntu Server 8: Managing users & groups: How to?

[Robert Dailey]

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Chris Rees <utisoft at googlemail.com> wrote:

> > Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:41:27 -0500
> > "Robert Dailey" <rcdailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 4:21 PM, Jim Rosser <jarosser06 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> You could use Ebox which provides a graphical interface through the
> >> network, so you don't have to add a desktop to your server and you still
> get
> >> a Friendly GUI.  You might check out *http://www.ebox*-platform.com to
> >> find out more information.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 3:05 PM, Karl Larsen <k5di at zianet.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Robert Dailey wrote:
> >>> > Hi,
> >>> >
> >>> > Is there a way to manage users & groups in Ubuntu Server much like
> >>> packages
> >>> > are managed in Aptitude? Something graphical on the command line so I
> >>> can
> >>> > worry a little less about command line parameters. If not, is there a
> >>> > tutorial or reference somewhere that describes how to do a couple of
> >>> > user/group related things, such as moving a user from one group to
> >>> another,
> >>> > adding users to and removing users from groups?
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>>     First there is nothing on the command line that is graphical. You
> >>> either use the Command Line tools or punt. I have often wondered why
> >>> Server's are not just a desktop running on init 2. That way you can as
> >>> owner bring on the desktop to do things like users and groups.
> >>
> >>
> > I have a question also about basic file permissions.
> >
> > Keep in mind I've been in Microsoft land for all my life, and I realize
> you
> > guys get pretty pissed off when I refer to linux stuff using Windows
> > terminology. However I hope you'll bear with me, I'm still learning.
> >
> > >From what I can tell, each file or directory on the system can have a
> user
> > AND a group associated with it. This doesn't make much sense to me. If
> I'm
> > user 'foo', and I have a group named 'test' which I am in, and I assign
> the
> > following to a file:
> >
> > USER: foo
> > GROUP: test
> >
> > I've technically been added to this file 2 times, so which permissions
> does
> > the system choose for me? The ones from the group that I'm in, or the
> user
> > permissions? It would make more sense to add *only* groups to files and
> > directories, things would seem more consistent that way. I don't see a
> point
> > in just assigning a single user as  a special case, when all you really
> need
> > to do is assign a group with only 1 user in it.
>
> If you're user:foo and in group:test, a file with user:group foo:test
> will have permissions applied to you from the u part of the
> permissions.
>
> Permissions:
>     u      g      o      own   group
> -   rwx  rwx  rwx     foo     test
>
> The order in which permissions are read and applied goes from left to
> right; if you're the file owner (foo) then the first field to match
> from left to right is the owner field (u), whethere you are in group
> test or not. However, if you are NOT foo, then the next field is read;
> if you're in group test group permissions (g) are applied, if not then
> other (o) is applied. Example:
>
> [chris at amnesiac]~% ls -l
>
> -rw-r--r--  1 chris  wheel 529156 Nov 29  2004 pjirc_2_1_1_bin.zip
>
> [chris at amnesiac]~% whoami; groups
> chris
> chris wheel
> [chris at amnesiac]~%
>
>
>
> The permissions of the file are for me rw (read and write). However;
>
>
>
> [chris at amnesiac]~% chmod u=r,og=rw pjirc_2_1_1_bin.zip ; ls -l
>
> -r--rw-rw-  1 chris  wheel  529156 Nov 29  2004 pjirc_2_1_1_bin.zip
>
> [chris at amnesiac]~% echo foo >pjirc_2_1_1_bin.zip
>
> pjirc_2_1_1_bin.zip: Permission denied.
>
> [chris at amnesiac]~%
>
>
>
> I now only have read permission, even though I am in group wheel that
> has write. So it continues....
>
> On a side note, if you really want, Windows-style ACLs _are_ possible
> in Linux, it's just that unless you really need them the simple
> user-group-other paradigm covers almost any possible needs. They
> simplify everything, and you can tell exactly what you can and can't
> do just by looking at nine letters.


Thanks everyone, this has been extremely helpful.
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