- Utilities
- Why Permissions in the First Place?
- Who's Your Daddy?
- Summary
Why Permissions in the First Place?
At some point, one has to ask this: Why should we be messing with the permissions in the first place? What is it that causes them to be important?
Usually, a user wants to do this because the OS will not allow them to do some sort of manipulation on the file. Perhaps the trash can't be emptied because with OS X you lack permissions to do so. Or you want to move the file somewhere and the OS will not let you do so.
If you are the administration account on the machine (or the remote machine), these restrictions can be very frustrating. Permissions are supposed to stop users without authorization from messing things up. They shouldn't serve as an obstacle to the administrator.
The reason why an administrator is impeded requires a new look at OS X and the environment in which it functions. Unlike other Unix-derived systems, OS X has been designed for compatibility with legacy applications and files that were never designed for a rigid owner/permissions structure. That means OS 9—aka "Classic."
This dichotomy meant that OS X has to simultaneously live in two worlds at the same time; one with owner/permissions and one without. This lead to a design compromise in OS X that is not really talked about too much: variable ownership.