Question about file system permissions

[Cameron Simpson]

On 26Dec2006 13:46, Marcelo Magno T. Sales <marcelo.sales at sefaz.pe.gov.br> wrote:
| Em Ter?a 26 Dezembro 2006 12:54, Marcelo Magno T. Sales escreveu:
[...]
| > user02, as expected, is not able to read nor modify the contents of this
| > file, as he does not have read nor write permissions on it. However, he can
| > delete the file, because he has write permissions on /test, once he's
| > member of the group users.
| > However, if user02 opens file.txt in VIM, edit it and then save it with
| > :w!, the file is modified, saved, and its ownership is altered to
| > user02:users. How can this happen?? How can VIM alter the ownership and
| > write to this file, if user02 is not it's owner and have no permissions on
| > it? user02 can't do that using chown, chmod nor chgrp, but using VIM he
| > can?!
| 
| Never mind. VIM must be removing the existing file and creating another one 
| with the same name, which it has permission to do. It does not effective 
| change the existing file, it just replaces it.

Yep. Does this annoy you as much as it does me?
-- 
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au> DoD#743
http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/

Anyone who values temporary safety over personal liberty, deserves neither
liberty nor safety.     - Ben Franklin, paraphrased due to bad memory