Ubuntu Server 8: Managing users & groups: How to?

[Robert Dailey]

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 4:21 PM, Jim Rosser <jarosser06 at gmail.com> wrote:

> You could use Ebox which provides a graphical interface through the
> network, so you don't have to add a desktop to your server and you still get
> a Friendly GUI.  You might check out *http://www.ebox*-platform.com to
> find out more information.
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 3:05 PM, Karl Larsen <k5di at zianet.com> wrote:
>
>> Robert Dailey wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > Is there a way to manage users & groups in Ubuntu Server much like
>> packages
>> > are managed in Aptitude? Something graphical on the command line so I
>> can
>> > worry a little less about command line parameters. If not, is there a
>> > tutorial or reference somewhere that describes how to do a couple of
>> > user/group related things, such as moving a user from one group to
>> another,
>> > adding users to and removing users from groups?
>> >
>> >
>>     First there is nothing on the command line that is graphical. You
>> either use the Command Line tools or punt. I have often wondered why
>> Server's are not just a desktop running on init 2. That way you can as
>> owner bring on the desktop to do things like users and groups.
>
>
I have a question also about basic file permissions.

Keep in mind I've been in Microsoft land for all my life, and I realize you
guys get pretty pissed off when I refer to linux stuff using Windows
terminology. However I hope you'll bear with me, I'm still learning.

>From what I can tell, each file or directory on the system can have a user
AND a group associated with it. This doesn't make much sense to me. If I'm
user 'foo', and I have a group named 'test' which I am in, and I assign the
following to a file:

USER: foo
GROUP: test

I've technically been added to this file 2 times, so which permissions does
the system choose for me? The ones from the group that I'm in, or the user
permissions? It would make more sense to add *only* groups to files and
directories, things would seem more consistent that way. I don't see a point
in just assigning a single user as  a special case, when all you really need
to do is assign a group with only 1 user in it.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20080630/559350fd/attachment.html>