Re: chown: Not owner

From: Barry Margolin (barmar_at_alum.mit.edu)
Date: 03/31/04 

Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 05:18:57 -0500

In article <406a8d24$0$568$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>,
 "dick dijk" <dickdijk@xs4all.nl> wrote:

> I have a strange problem.
>
> When I create a file in my home-dir (or a different one) I can't chown it !!
> (only as root)
> Here is what I do:

By default, only the superuser is allowed to change file ownership in
Solaris. There's a system configuration option that extends the
capability to ordinary users. See "man 2 chown".

This restriction was created in BSD when they added file quotas.
Otherwise, someone could cause another user to go over quota by creating
a huge file and then chowning it to them. The file would be in a
directory that the other user has no permission to access, so they
wouldn't be able to delete or truncate it. 

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***