Hi. I'm using MacOS X 10.3 on an iBook G4.

I have been very foolish, and would like some help sorting out my
problem...

My foolhardiness was:

1. I wish to share folder xxx, so move it to my Public folder.
2. Its own file permissions stop me accessing it there, so do get
info/change permissions, click "change all in folder".
3. (Crucial Error) Click "yes, perform this unreversable action"
without checking that it was folder xxx I had on Get Info...
4. Realise that the Get Info window was "Macintosh HD", and I've just
'chowned' all of / recursively to a different group.

Whoops.

Now, I'm not completely Unix-unsavvy (just a bit careless when
rushed), and I still have a console window and root login, so if
someone could give me the default permissions for the standard files
and folders, I'd be able to chown them back again using the root user.

Can anyone post a ls -al on / and important subdirectories, please?
(Obviously, you should avoid posting the contents of your user
directory or similar files. Also all files some folders, for example
/Applications, are the same, so I only need indicative entries, not an
entire listing.)

Since this is quite large, it might be best to e-mail it to me. Having
found a similar thread elsewhere which disappears with a "your e-mail
sorted my problem" message from the OP, if I get a personal e-mail
I'll find somewhere on my website to put the crucial parts, and post
back here. Or you could put it on your own website -- but I'd like to
make sure this information stays available to later readers, since
I've seen this problem elsewhere, and it's sometimes caused by program
bugs, instead of stupidity as in this case!

Thanks in advance.

--
John Aldis, BF, MMath.

john@hypermactive.com wrote in message news:<27cfd36f.0404300719.4c707da2@posting.google. com>...
> Hi. I'm using MacOS X 10.3 on an iBook G4.
>
> I have been very foolish, and would like some help sorting out my
> problem...
>
> My foolhardiness was:
>
> 1. I wish to share folder xxx, so move it to my Public folder.
> 2. Its own file permissions stop me accessing it there, so do get
> info/change permissions, click "change all in folder".
> 3. (Crucial Error) Click "yes, perform this unreversable action"
> without checking that it was folder xxx I had on Get Info...
> 4. Realise that the Get Info window was "Macintosh HD", and I've just
> 'chowned' all of / recursively to a different group.
>
> Whoops.
>
> Now, I'm not completely Unix-unsavvy (just a bit careless when
> rushed), and I still have a console window and root login, so if
> someone could give me the default permissions for the standard files
> and folders, I'd be able to chown them back again using the root user.
>
> Can anyone post a ls -al on / and important subdirectories, please?
> (Obviously, you should avoid posting the contents of your user
> directory or similar files. Also all files some folders, for example
> /Applications, are the same, so I only need indicative entries, not an
> entire listing.)
>
> Since this is quite large, it might be best to e-mail it to me. Having
> found a similar thread elsewhere which disappears with a "your e-mail
> sorted my problem" message from the OP, if I get a personal e-mail
> I'll find somewhere on my website to put the crucial parts, and post
> back here. Or you could put it on your own website -- but I'd like to
> make sure this information stays available to later readers, since
> I've seen this problem elsewhere, and it's sometimes caused by program
> bugs, instead of stupidity as in this case!
>
> Thanks in advance.

Good news at least for the system files Apple has the fix already !
Go to Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility. Pick your disk and go to
First Aid, then pick Repair Disk Permissions. This should fix all the
Apple installed files. This leaves the User Directories and for them
you can just log in as each user and pick all their files and set them
for oh say Read/Write by them and Read by everyone else. (The Public
and Drop Box folders are left as an exercise for the reader....) Also
I have noticed that the Info window changed permissions to all
enclosed doesn't really work that well. But from the terminal window
chmod -R ### *.* does work.

--jim

Apple's Disk Repair Utility has a Repair permissions function. Boot from the
repair disk to run it.

<john@hypermactive.com> wrote in message
news:27cfd36f.0404300719.4c707da2@posting.google.c om...
> Hi. I'm using MacOS X 10.3 on an iBook G4.
>
> I have been very foolish, and would like some help sorting out my
> problem...
>
> My foolhardiness was:
>
> 1. I wish to share folder xxx, so move it to my Public folder.
> 2. Its own file permissions stop me accessing it there, so do get
> info/change permissions, click "change all in folder".
> 3. (Crucial Error) Click "yes, perform this unreversable action"
> without checking that it was folder xxx I had on Get Info...
> 4. Realise that the Get Info window was "Macintosh HD", and I've just
> 'chowned' all of / recursively to a different group.
>
> Whoops.
>
> Now, I'm not completely Unix-unsavvy (just a bit careless when
> rushed), and I still have a console window and root login, so if
> someone could give me the default permissions for the standard files
> and folders, I'd be able to chown them back again using the root user.
>
> Can anyone post a ls -al on / and important subdirectories, please?
> (Obviously, you should avoid posting the contents of your user
> directory or similar files. Also all files some folders, for example
> /Applications, are the same, so I only need indicative entries, not an
> entire listing.)
>
> Since this is quite large, it might be best to e-mail it to me. Having
> found a similar thread elsewhere which disappears with a "your e-mail
> sorted my problem" message from the OP, if I get a personal e-mail
> I'll find somewhere on my website to put the crucial parts, and post
> back here. Or you could put it on your own website -- but I'd like to
> make sure this information stays available to later readers, since
> I've seen this problem elsewhere, and it's sometimes caused by program
> bugs, instead of stupidity as in this case!
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> --
> John Aldis, BF, MMath.

Craig M. Feeney wrote:

> Apple's Disk Repair Utility has a Repair permissions function. Boot from the
> repair disk to run it.


One can run Repair Permissions just fine from and on the Boot disk.
Repairing the directories, etc, needs to be done from another boot
drive, of which the CD is but one option.

--
John McWilliams