Re: Why is my /home g+s staff? [Was Re: dpkg and shadow]

[meierrj@frc.com]

> Here's a quick question: Why is my /home g+s staff?
> drwxrwsr-x   4 root     staff        1024 Mar 19 23:05 /home/

	Your $HOME directory is probably /home/<username>.  /home is
the parent directory for the home directories of all the users (real and
system) on your machine.  Normally only the staff can add or delete users,
or change access to users' directories.

	http://www.pathname.com/fhs/1.2/fsstnd-toc.html recommends a
good division of the address space and authority.

	For decades, I have added

drwxr.xr.x  4 tool  bin    ... /usr/packages

I place original distributions in /usr/packages/<package-identifier> along
with their licensing info, installation notes, etc.  The package is actually
installed here by an unprivelaged user (tool) and then symbolic links
connect it to /usr/local/...  By this method, one can install packages
easily, and uninstall cleanly.  Removal of the directory, and all symbolic
links into it, will entirely purge the package except for a handful of
configuration files that I always list in the installation notes.

	For the last year, I've been using a package called opt_depot that
is a set of shell scripts to automate the above.  I plan to put opt_depot
on my new Debian system soon to handle packages that are not yet debianized
(e.g. kermit, Mosaic, calc-el) and to provide clean removal capability.

						Hope this helps,
-- 
						Robert Meier

FANUC Robotics North America, Inc.	Internet: meierrj@frc.com
Voice: 1-810-377-7469			Fax:      1-810-377-7363