Inherit permissions without buying OS 10.5 Server?

[mehomer1964]

Does anyone know of a work around to the problem of folder permissions not being able to inherit permissions. I need files and folders to inherit the permissions of the parent folder. I know I can do this with the OS X server, but my boss does not want to spend $500 on something that all windows standard OS’s will do.

Someone said I could set up a cron job to stomp the folders into submission but I don’t know how to write a cron job script.

I also try’d batchmod program but that didnt work. Also tryed sharepoints freeware program but it crashes on my system, I think it’s because it’s not meant for OS 10.5.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

[khiltd]

Folder actions or launchd watchpath? It’ll be slow, but free.

[mehomer1964]

Thank you for the advice. I did make a script for folder actions and got it to work slightly. But for folders within folders in the parent folder it doesn’t hold. So I was wondering if anyone out there knows of a pre-written script or GUI shareware that would let me apply inherit permissions to a folder for everything, files and folders within folders.

If there is something out there like this I know there would be a lot of interest in this by others. Even willing to pay for it, I know I would. Just not the $499 that Apple wants for their server. I have seen this same complaint by many people from googling it. I just haven’t been able to find the right solution yet.

Again, Thanks for your help!

[khiltd]

chown and chmod both do recursion with the -R option. Or is the problem that the action doesn’t fire for anything deeper?

[Magus255]

I am guessing you are using 10.4. You could set up ACLs through the command line. It is kind of a pain to do on home directories. We set it up to force the issue on drop boxes and it has been working well for about a month. The changes could be scripted if you are doing it on 10.4 server. Probably on 10.4 client too, though I’ve only found need to do it on server.

[luke]

Magus255, could you elaborate on how you used this on drop boxes? Permissions issues on drop boxes drive me crazy!

[Magus255]

I work at a school (k-12) and our problem was students were putting work in teacher drop boxes and teachers couldn’t delete it. We just used ACLs to give teachers full control of their own drop box and had the ACLs inherit to the files and folders inside. After doing it I realized that it probably would have been easier to just use ACLs on the whole home folder and give them full control of everything in their home, but that wasn’t a problem so it wasn’t needed.

[Author]

Posts