Folder permissions question

[Devin Asay]

On Sep 15, 2006, at 2:43 PM, Shari wrote:

>> I just had this in a client's stack where data is being saved to  
>> the main system library/application support folder. It works fine  
>> when running as an admin account, but fails when a non-admin user  
>> tries to run the software. The solution is for the admin account  
>> to change permissions on that folder so that non-admin users can  
>> access it. (This is on OS X.) I suppose the shell command would  
>> work too, but if a non-admin is installing to the main  
>> applications folder, then you'll need sudo in there somewhere, I  
>> think. Our solution was just to tell the user to log in as admin  
>> and give his other accounts permissions to access the folder. The  
>> situation was rare enough that a manual solution was acceptable.
>
> Thanks, Jacque.
>
> Silly question... what is "sudo"?

No--good question. 'sudo' is a cool innovation in Darwin, the  
modified BSD unix system that is the basic of Mac OS X. Apple (I  
think) added it to give command line users an easy way to execute one  
command as the root user, also called the 'super user'. So 'sudo' is  
short for 'super user do', or 'Do the following command as the super  
user.' In essence, it gives one absolute, invincible power for one  
brief moment, if one knows the root password. I pronounce it like  
'pseudo', but I've heard other people say 'soo-doo'. Anyway, with  
that background, check out my current favorite cartoon on the internet:

http://xkcd.com/c149.html

Have a good weekend everyone.

Devin


Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University