user permissions

[Allan Pincus]

Hi,

I have user "Mike" and want him to have the same owner permissions as user "John". I know there is an easy way to do this, but I don't remember how.

That way, Mike and John can have different user environments, but can modify each other's files. Group permission is not enough because I have a number of users in the same group, but Mike and John need to be able to edit the same files.

Can someone help me?

Thanks!

[Ted Ellis_2]

create a brand new group using groupadd

groupadd -g gid NEWGROUP

now make Mike and John members of this group as secondary to their primary group

usermod -G NEWGROUP Mike
usermod -G NEWGROUP John

then any files they need to share can be owned by them and this NEWGROUP

Ted

[Ted Ellis_2]

the usermod -G will add the user to this group as a secondary and will leave the primary group assignment intact. You will notice that after the usermod is run the Mike or John name will be added as a field entry to the line for NEWGROUP in the /etc/group file.... just in case you were wondering

Ted

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Allan,

What you would do is assign the SAME UID (User ID) to BOTH users. You can give them separate primary GIDs (Group IDs) if you wish.

Say Mike is already on the system with UID=1105, when you create John give him UID=1105 as well.

They then become essentially the same user.

NOTE: DO NOT DO THIS WITH THE USER root WITH ANYBODY - root UID=0.

Rgds,
Jeff

[Michael Tully]

One thing I would not do is to assign the same UID to both users. There are enough ways to create the appropriate permissions. Assigning the same UID's is creating a significant security problem. Once you start doing this when does it end.

same groups
ACL's if necessary

[Jeff Schussele]

I would agree with you, Michael, but as he laid that out - outside of ACLS I see no other way.

We face the same type problem with the application groups always wanting "generic" accounts.....

Allan - Michael is entirely correct - this is a slippery slope to go down. Security-wise the system will see no difference between these users. So you've been warned......

Rgds,
Jeff

[Thomas M. Williams_1]

Allan - As with 95% of all situations there are many resolutions. But I think Ted's suggestion is going to be your best solution. The only thing I would do differently is to make the new group the primary group for Mike and John. The original primary would then become part of the secondary group list. This way you don't run into the issue of Mike creating a file having a group permission for which John is not a part of.

[Shannon Petry]

I'll second the "same UID" is a bad Idea, and not for only reasons listed.
Some programs use UID and not USERNAME, so will get confused and start failing. On top of failing programs add the security risks and bickering when someone deletes someone elses stuff and you have a nightmare. IMHO if your sharing UID's you may as well give them both the same ID because that is what it is. Just the illusion that they are separate as there are 2 ways to log into the same account.

Remember that sticky bits are your friends for shared files and applications, and with good sysadmin skills you prolly dont need ACL's.

Regards,
Shannon