RE: How do I prevent User 'A' from seeing User 'B' /home contents
<<snip>> Root has the power to view, change, or remove
> every user's
> > data. The power, but generally not the right. I would be
> a very angry
> > user if an administrator of a system I worked on did this
> type of thing.
> > Depending upon the context, I'd either take my dollars
> elsewhere (if a
> > paying customer) or make sure the superiors knew of the
> abuse of power
> > (if a corporate environment).
>
> I agree. Unless you need to enforce a written policy of some sort by
> restricting access, these decisions should be left to the users. Show
> the users HOW to change their own home directory permissions,
> but do not
> do it for them. If they choose to do it, then they can. Personally, I
> believe that information should be shared, so I leave my home
> directory
> world-readable. I only restrict access to those areas that contain
> personal or otherwise sensitive information.
>
> --
> Alex Malinovich
> Support Free Software, delete your Windows partition TODAY!
> Encrypted mail preferred. You can get my public key from any of the
> pgp.net keyservers. Key ID: A6D24837
Wow! I agree, however I didn't know that each user could change permissions.
Had no idea it what I was getting into; to clarify a couple of points
the system in question is a 'stand-alone' desktop unit, that hopefully one day
I wiil be able to use to introduce my family to Linux. the home directory is
MY directory that like you said I would like to keep private so that things
dont accidently get messed up. Some very good points have been brought up about
users rights though, and I believe users should have a right to say who accesses
their files. I did a chmod 700 on the directory I wanted to keep private, not the
whole /home directory so that other info could be shared.
Thanks,
mw
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