Re: [WinMac] OS X Server Permissions

Subject: Re: [WinMac] OS X Server Permissions
From: Michael Eilon (mgeilon[at]cyllene.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Tue Jun 18 2002 - 10:01:18 EDT

Hi Rick,

At 5:38 AM +0800 14/6/02, Rick Kent wrote:
>We are running a new OS X file server, which is working great except
>that when anyone creates a new file or folder on the server, no one
>else can write to it because the permissions default to: Owner
>Read/Write; Group Read/Write; Everyone Read Only. So we than have to
>manually go in and change the permissions.
>
>Is there a way to make it default to Everyone Read/Write as well? I
>have looked all over, in documentation etc, but cannot find anything.
>I made some rudimentary attempts at getting everyone in the same
>group, but have so far been unsuccessful.

I haven't had the opportunity to use MacOS X much, but my experience with
other Unixen prompts me to ask: down't all user accounts start off in the
same group (usually something like "users" or "staff")?

If not, surely it should be possible to do this? (On Linux, this is done
by a trivial modification of the adduser configuration file in
/etc/adduser.conf)

Anyway, appended is an extract from the June edition of Australian
MacWorld, which describes how to create and and add users to a new group
under MacOS X.

Cheers,

Michael Eilon
Assistant computer manager
Dept. of Physics
University of Western Australia

<mgeilon@cyllene.uwa.edu.au> 

--

Set up groups.

To create a group in OS X, you use the NetInfo Manager utility (in
Applications: Utilities). A warning: NetInfo is an extremely useful but
very powerful utility, so if you do something wrong, you could really screw
up your computer. Since the NetInfo database manages many network- and user
related settings, changing or deleting the wrong setting could affect
network functions or even prevent you from logging in correctly. I strongly
recommend that you back up your NetInfo settings before making any changes.
Luckily, NetInfo can do this for you. Select Save Backup from the Domain
menu to save a backup wherever you please. If you do anything that causes
problems, you can use the Restore From Backup command in the Domain menu to
retrieve your original settings.

After you launch NetInfo Manager, you must unlock administrative access.
Click on the padlock icon at the bottom of the NetInfo window, and enter
your account password. Assuming that your user account has administrator
rights, this will unlock NetInfo and allow you to make changes.

In the Directory Browser section of NetInfo, click on Groups in the middle
pane. While you can create a group from scratch, copying and editing
another group is much easier. Select Guest and then click on the Duplicate
Selected Directory button (the large button with two folders). This will
give you a new group subdirectory called Guest Copy. Select this new
subdirectory to edit it.

In the Directory pane at the bottom of the window, double click on the
Guest Copy value and change it to the name of your new group. Do the same
with the value for the gid (group id) property, a unique number that
NetInfo uses to track the group. You can pick almost any number you like,
as long as it isn't already in use by another group. Three-digit numbers
are generally safe, since the groups that are already set up in OS X all
use a gid under 100.

Finally, you'll want to add users to the group you've created. Click on the
Users property in the Directory pane; then choose Insert Value from the
Directory menu. Type in each user's short username (the name of the user's
user folder). Keep adding values with the Insert Value command until you've
added everyone you want as a member of that group. Now you have your own
custom groups that you can use to assign group privileges. If you need to
create another group, you can follow the same procedure.

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