[cobalt-users] permissions, groups and admin.

[astorm <astorm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, I have a Cobalt/Linux question that I'm hoping someone can help me 
with.

As I understand things, on a cobalt box (XTR specifically) the user 
"admin" is a member of all the "site" (site1, site2, site3 etc.) 
groups.  Because the RAQs are setup like this, that means the admin 
account can "see" (among other things) any sites log files

--------------------------------------------------
[admin admin]$ ls -ld /home/sites/site1/logs
drwxr-s---    3 nobody   site1        4096 Apr 14 04:02 
/home/sites/site1/logs

[admin site81]$ ls -l /home/sites/site1/logs
total 5016
drwxr-sr-x    6 root     site1        4096 Jul  2 04:14 2003
-rw-r--r--    1 root     site1      732216 Jun 30 04:31 ftp.log
-rw-r--r--    1 root     site1     4382701 Jul 23 04:20 web.log
--------------------------------------------------

The other day, I noticed something strange. I tried to cd into the logs 
directory for the site at /home/sites/site81, and was denied

--------------------------------------------------
[admin /etc]$ cd /home/sites/site81/logs
bash: /home/sites/site81/logs: Permission denied
--------------------------------------------------

However, the permissions appear to be the same as the other logs folders

--------------------------------------------------
[admin /etc]$ ls -ld /home/sites/site81/logs
drwxr-s---    3 nobody   site81       4096 Aug 12 04:03 
/home/sites/site81/logs
--------------------------------------------------

I peeked inside the /etc/group files, and admin did appear as a member 
for site81 [? marks replace administrative username for privacy]

--------------------------------------------------
[admin /etc]$ less group | grep 'site81'
site81:x:193:??????,admin,alteradmin
--------------------------------------------------

Acting on a paranoid hunch, I tried to access other site's logs 
folders, starting from site1.  I had no problems until I reached site32

--------------------------------------------------
[admin sites]$ ls -l /home/sites/site31/logs
total 1952
drwxr-sr-x    7 root     site31       4096 Aug  2 04:15 2003
-rw-r--r--    1 root     site31      41011 Jun  3 04:12 ftp.log
-rw-r--r--    1 root     site31    1942094 Aug 12 04:03 web.log

[admin sites]$ ls -l /home/sites/site32/logs
ls: /home/sites/site32/logs: Permission denied

[admin sites]$ ls -l /home/sites/site33/logs
ls: /home/sites/site33/logs: Permission denied
--------------------------------------------------

For every site after site31 (numerically speaking site32, site33 etc.) 
I was unable to access the logs folder. (without, obviously, "su"ing 
in).

Site32 happens to have front page extensions enabled.  I thought that 
might have something to do with my problems, but it's a stab in the 
dark.

So, can anyone tell me what's going on here?  Is there something screwy 
with my server, or do I lack some key understanding of UNIX 
permissions/groups?  Any help is greatly appreciated.


--
Alan Storm
astorm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx