non-superuser chown(2)s considered harmful

[Ray Ward]

In article <110091 at convex.convex.com>, tchrist at convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) writes:
> Yes, but what happens where chown is not privileged?  
> 
>     % mkdir foo
>     % touch foo/bar
>     % chown somebody_else foo/bar foo
> 
> Now how do I get rid of that stuff?

There seems to be a theme ( sub-thread? fiber? ) on this thread that if
you can do something to a file that you can't undo without superuser
permissions, it is inherently bad, un-UNIX, Death-Star chic, or whatnot.

I disagree.  Consider the following:

		% rm -f foo/bar

Try getting the superuser to recover the file, on most systems.
It is possible to *actually* do things: permanent, irrecoverable, or
other definite types of things.  Even stupid or inconvenient things.

I have always considered this to be one of the beauties of UNIX:  it assumes
you know what you're doing, whether you do or not.  The software is assumed
to work:  it doesn't run off at the mouth telling you, "I made it this far,
so far, so good!" unless you ask it to.




-- 
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Ray Ward                                          Email:  uunet!ctbilbo!ray  
Voice:  (214) 991-8338x226, (800) 331-7032        Fax  :  (214) 991-8968     
=-=-=-=-  There _are_ simple answers, just no _easy_ ones. -- R.R. -=-=-=-=