Permissions?

Dave Howorth dhoworth at mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk
Fri Feb 26 10:56:20 UTC 2010


Jan wrote:
> Jim Byrnes wrote:
>> 1) I found to edit a file in /var/www with jedit I must do gksudo jedit 
>> and supply my password.
>>
>> 2) The jedit session that opens does not have the same customizations 
>> (for example downloaded plugins) that would show up if I opened jedit 
>> from the Applications menu to work on a file in my Home folder.
>>
>> 1) Is there a way to open jedit from the applications menu and have it 
>> ask for my password so that I could edit any file?
>>
>> 2)  Do I need to have 2 sets of settings for jedit?
>>
>> If this is strictly a jedit issue, I apologize. I just don't know if 
>> this is the normal behavior for using a app to modify files outside of 
>> the home folder.
>>
>> Regards,  Jim
>>
>>   
> If I got you right, the "chown" command is the solution:
> 
> http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/lucid/en/man3/chown.3posix.html

In general that is the wrong solution. Files very often have specific
ownership and permissions in order to make the system work properly and
be secure. So changing the ownership of arbitrary files is a Bad Idea.
Don't do it unless you know exactly what the file is and why you're
changing its ownership.

I don't use jedit so I can't answer your questions, Jim. It would be
technically possible for jedit to do what you want or for a plugin to
implement it, but it's not a common feature of programs so it may well
be that it doesn't work that way. If you don't get an answer here, you
could ask on http://community.jedit.org/

Having two sets of settings is definitely a solution to the problem.

Cheers, Dave




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