Comments on: I’d written up two other posts http://emphaticallystatic.org/earlier/id-written-up-two-other-posts/ emphatically static! Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:07:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1-alpha By: pul| http://emphaticallystatic.org/earlier/id-written-up-two-other-posts/#comment-7622 pul| Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:24:00 +0000 http://actuality.wahgnube.org/earlier/id-written-up-two-other-posts/#comment-7622 Thanks for the explanation! Thanks for the explanation!

]]> By: wahgnube http://emphaticallystatic.org/earlier/id-written-up-two-other-posts/#comment-7609 wahgnube Sun, 27 Mar 2005 19:43:19 +0000 http://actuality.wahgnube.org/earlier/id-written-up-two-other-posts/#comment-7609 So that there is no confusion, the real answer to your question is yes, I happen to know why and have elucidated how to get it working at the end of this reply. But before that, here is the deal with fstab. Its format is: devicename mountpoint filesystemtype mountoptions backupoptions checkoptions Which I'd set as: /dev/sda1 /mnt/external ext3 rw,noauto,user 1 0 Since the first three columns are obvious (and the last two aren't immediately pertinent), I'll talk about the fourth column. My mountoptions include rw, noauto and user. rw - mount filesystem in read/write mode noauto - don't attempt to mount at boot (because I might have not plugged the drive in) user - allows a normal user to mount the drive This is exactly what I wanted. The option "defaults" on other hand implies rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and async unless overriden by other options (like your defaults,user). You can read up on all these and a lot more by typing 'man mount'. To answer your question, though I had set it up so that anyone could mount it, the folder /mnt/external was still created by (and thus owned by root). [me@localhost me]$ ls -l /mnt/ total 16 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 3 2004 camera drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 20 2004 cdrom drwxr-xr-x 4 <strong>root root</strong> 4096 Mar 20 15:10 external drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 20 2004 floppy (Recalling of course, that just because anyone could access a mounted /, doesn't mean they can arbitrarily write anywhere on it before an appropriate permissions heirarchy is in place, /home/user being user's castle, for instance.) I didn't mention this, but I later went on to create a folder in /mnt/external, say /mnt/external/mystuff and chowned it to me. Therefore I, as a regular user 'me' can write into /mnt/external/mystuff but not directly into /mnt/external (which is what you're trying). This was the behaviour I was aiming for. If this isn't what you want, you can chown /mnt/external to a specific user or groups of users. So apart from anyone being able to mount/unmount it, they can also write all over it. (Not what I want.) If in doubt, man chown is your friend. So that there is no confusion, the real answer to your question is yes, I happen to know why and have elucidated how to get it working at the end of this reply. But before that, here is the deal with fstab.

Its format is:
devicename mountpoint filesystemtype mountoptions backupoptions checkoptions

Which I’d set as:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/external ext3 rw,noauto,user 1 0

Since the first three columns are obvious (and the last two aren’t immediately pertinent), I’ll talk about the fourth column. My mountoptions include rw, noauto and user.

rw – mount filesystem in read/write mode
noauto – don’t attempt to mount at boot (because I might have not plugged the drive in)
user – allows a normal user to mount the drive

This is exactly what I wanted. The option “defaults” on other hand implies
rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and async
unless overriden by other options (like your defaults,user). You can read up on all these and a lot more by typing ‘man mount’.

To answer your question, though I had set it up so that anyone could mount it, the folder /mnt/external was still created by (and thus owned by root).

[me@localhost me]$ ls -l /mnt/
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 3 2004 camera
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 20 2004 cdrom
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 20 15:10 external
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 20 2004 floppy

(Recalling of course, that just because anyone could access a mounted /, doesn’t mean they can arbitrarily write anywhere on it before an appropriate permissions heirarchy is in place, /home/user being user’s castle, for instance.)

I didn’t mention this, but I later went on to create a folder in /mnt/external, say /mnt/external/mystuff and chowned it to me. Therefore I, as a regular user ‘me’ can write into /mnt/external/mystuff but not directly into /mnt/external (which is what you’re trying). This was the behaviour I was aiming for.

If this isn’t what you want, you can chown /mnt/external to a specific user or groups of users. So apart from anyone being able to mount/unmount it, they can also write all over it. (Not what I want.) If in doubt, man chown is your friend.

]]> By: pul| http://emphaticallystatic.org/earlier/id-written-up-two-other-posts/#comment-7569 pul| Sun, 27 Mar 2005 02:47:27 +0000 http://actuality.wahgnube.org/earlier/id-written-up-two-other-posts/#comment-7569 Nice tutorial. However, the instructions for the fstab entry in Step 11 (i.e.) /dev/sda1 /mnt/external ext3 rw,noauto,user 1 0 would let me mount the drive as a normal user, but not let me write to it (except as root) for some odd reason. I got away with this instead: /dev/sda1 /mnt/external ext3 user,defaults 0 0 Would you happen to know why? Nice tutorial. However, the instructions for the fstab entry in Step 11 (i.e.)

/dev/sda1 /mnt/external ext3 rw,noauto,user 1 0

would let me mount the drive as a normal user, but not let me write to it (except as root) for some odd reason. I got away with this instead:

/dev/sda1 /mnt/external ext3 user,defaults 0 0

Would you happen to know why?

]]> By: Anantha http://emphaticallystatic.org/earlier/id-written-up-two-other-posts/#comment-7100 Anantha Fri, 18 Mar 2005 10:52:28 +0000 http://actuality.wahgnube.org/earlier/id-written-up-two-other-posts/#comment-7100 Sweet :) Sweet :)

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