[CentOS] chown command goof up

Mon Feb 12 22:10:32 UTC 2007
Ross S. W. Walker <rwalker at medallion.com>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: centos-bounces at centos.org 
> [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of MrKiwi
> Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 4:50 PM
> To: CentOS mailing list
> Subject: Re: [CentOS] chown command goof up
> 
> Ross S. W. Walker wrote:
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: centos-bounces at centos.org 
> >> [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of David A. Woyciesjes
> >> Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 3:35 PM
> >> To: CentOS
> >> Subject: [CentOS] chown command goof up
> >>
> >> 	Basically, what I typed was:
> >> chown -R user2:user2 *
> >> chown -R user2:user2 .*
> >> chown -R user2:user2 *.*
> >> ...all in /home. Duh. I forgot which way recursive went.
> >> So, I then did:
> >> chown -R root:root *
> >> chown -R root:root .*
> >> chown -R root:root *.*
> >> ...this time in / to try and f things. Duh again. Other 
> items need to 
> >> have other owners & groups.
> >>
> >> 	So, how can I fix this? In MacOSX, there is a utility 
> >> to fix all 
> >> permissions on the system. Is there a similar item in CentOS?
> >>
> >> 	Here's what I originally wanted to do:
> >> Started with user1. Got everything setup just right. Then 
> >> created user2. 
> >> I wanted to use all the settings, mail, etc. from user1 
> for user2. My 
> >> thought was to just copy everything in /home/user1 to 
> >> /home/user2, then 
> >> use chown on all of the files. This is where I got myself 
> into this 
> >> pickle...
> >>
> >> 	Any ideas?
> > 
> > In case nobody just comes out and says it.
> > 
> > # rpm --setperms `rpm -qa`
> > # rpm --setugids `rpm -qa`
> > 
> > Should fix it.
> > 
> > -Ross
> 
> Wow! Never knew this one.
> 
> I have re-read TFM, but there isnt much about the --set* 
> options - could this be used daily as a 'tidy up' sort of 
> routine? or would it screw with *.conf ?
> 
> rkhunter currently looks for sus executable files, this 
> could reset perms on everything system related?
> 
> This is what i love about the style of packaging with rpm - 
> you know what happens in an install (and can repeat it!), 
> rather than 'black box' installations with windose where you 
> can never be sure what happened or if a 'refresh' will 
> rewrite local configs.

These options are poorly documented and well needed.

They're basically aliases for compounded rpm commands, basically query
for specific package tags and execute chown/chmod with them.

Google for "rpm setperms setugids"

Some people have them well documented in their wikis.

I think the aliases are defined somewhere, maybe in /usr/lib/rpm or some
subdir there, you can probably add your own there too.

-Ross

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