rm: xyz not removed. Permission denied

[Sanjiv Sharma_1]

batch1 and batch2 are member of the same group rst. File created by batch1 with permission rw-rw---- cannot be removed by batch2.

$ ll xyz
rw-rw---- 1 batch1 rst 0 Jun 17 23:50 xyz
$ whoami
batch2
$ rm -f xyz
rm: xyz not removed. Permission denied

What could be the reason?

[Steven E. Protter]

The file is probably open and held by a process.

fuser -cu might help you find the process and kill it.

SEP

[Sanjiv Sharma_1]

I have created a file xyz from user batch1.
$ touch xyz

Then login as batch2 and try to remove the file but it doesn't.

The file xyz is not open.

[Fred Ruffet]

Could you provide output from the id command with both users ? Also, to remove a file, you must have permission to write in the directory in order to remove inode.

Regards,

Fred

[Dave Hutton]

Is batch2 in the same group as batch1?

Did you log out of batch2 and back in to make the changes?
What does
$id
show?
Do you have the link for /etc/logingroup

[Bill Hassell]

Actually, the ownership and permissions of a file NEVER control whether you can remove it (or rename it). A file's permissions are only related to the content. The existence (creation or removal) are 100% controlled by the directory. If you do not have write capability to the directory (and access to the parent directories above it) then the file can be rw-rw-rw and you can't remove it. Normal Unix behavior.

There is one consideration called the sticky bit. If the directory has 777 permissions (like /tmp) then anyone can remove any file in /tmp, even if the file is owned by root and has 000 permissions. But change the directory to 1777 permissions (drwxrwxrwxt - the t is the sticky bit) and now, only the file's owner can remove or rename/move a file in that directory.

[Sanjiv Sharma_1]

$ id
uid=18056(batch1) gid=205(rst)

$ id
uid=18056(batch2) gid=205(rst)

The folder permission is
drwxr-x---

I think the folder permission is the cause.

[Sandman!]

Could be that the sticky bit is set on the directory that contains the file. Could you post the output of "ls -latr"

thanks

[Steve Lewis]

It could also be because of chmod u+t on the directory.

Except that in the case of drwxrwxrwt perms it says
rm: xyz not removed. Not owner.

So it looks like you need a case of g+wx on the directory as said above.

[Fred Ruffet]

Raje,

It's clearly the cause. You didn't put it, but I imagine that group for the directory is rst. This group doesn't have w permission on the directory and so cannot remove a file in it (neither create).

Regards,

Fred

[Bharat Katkar]

Yes Fred is right. just change the directory permissions to 770 and it should solve ur problem.
Regards,

[Bill Hassell]

You posted the permissions on the directory (750) which means only the owneer of the directory can remove files from the directory. If users batch1 and batch2 are members of the same group, then the directory must also be owned by that group *AND* change the permission to 770 (drwxrwx---)