I was in a data directory (not a system directory) when I typed the command:
I was in /app/datatel/coll18/coll18_live/apphome
when I typed

Code:

chown -R / datatel

when I should have typed

Code:

chown -R ./ datatel

I was attempting to change owner under the apphome directory but with my syntax error I changed the owner under root. I stopped the command before it completely disrupted the system.

I was able to set a number of the ownerships back to what I am think they should be and the system is running, rebooting, and getting backups.

Most of the damage was done under the var directory ALSO the /home ownership is still in question. Should it be root?

Thank you for posting some responses!

---------- Post updated at 09:55 AM ---------- Previous update was at 09:51 AM ----------

Code:

ksh: 1167506 Quit(coredump)

I cannot say definetly is this is showing up since the chown command - I believe so.

I am not the Unix Administrator so I usually do not take not of these system files.

thanks

Moderator's Comments:

Please use code tags!

---------- Post updated at 10:11 AM ---------- Previous update was at 09:55 AM ----------

I apoligize... I am new to this forum:

The exact command I typed when I was in

Code:

pwd
/app/datatel/coll18/coll18_live/apphome/

was

Code:

find . -name "*" | xargs chown datatel

When I should have typed
[code]
find ./ -name "*" | xargs chown datatel

The list was too long to chown using a recurrsive so I used the xargs.

My previous post of

Code:

chown -R datatel

was incorrect. That was the command I had entered prior to using the xargs.

I do not have the history.

I did not log off or reboot until I was sure I was able to log in. As mentioned earlier I had issues with the /home directory. Root user could not log in.

I was able to go to the security directory and change the profile file to redirect roots home directory to / instead of /home/root and then I was able to log in.

I am now trying to confirm the ownership of the files I have changed.

Thank you to all that have been responding.

---------- Post updated at 10:13 AM ---------- Previous update was at 10:11 AM ----------

Yes, I was root at the time I executed this command

---------- Post updated at 10:14 AM ---------- Previous update was at 10:13 AM ----------

Thank you for posting the listing. I will use it to compare to what I have changed the ownership to.

---------- Post updated at 10:34 AM ---------- Previous update was at 10:14 AM ----------

thank you dukessd for posting the listing.
I compared the ownership to the what I changed the ownership back to in the root directory.

I based a number of the ownership based on the group that was set on the file (because I had not changed these or the permissions).

DUKESSD listing for home directory has an owner of bin.
I changed my home directory owner to bin and this caused complete chaos. Users were kicked off the system (at that point the system was still functioning) and the root user could not log in. Certain commands would hang for example

Code:

ls -al

would cause the system to hang but

Code:

ls -l

would work.

I could not do a

Code:

pwd

Once I changed the

Code:

/etc/passwd

entry for the home directory of root to be

Code:

/

I was able to log in as root and I changed the permission back to user datatel on the home file only because when it was user datatel we would log in and process command.

I an now concerned about having to change the owner back to bin on the home directory.

Code:

teamaix(root): /etc -> more passwd
root:!:0:0::/:/usr/bin/ksh
daemon:!:1:1::/etc:
bin:!:2:2::/bin:
sys:!:3:3::/usr/sys:
adm:!:4:4::/var/adm:
uucp:!:5:5::/usr/lib/uucp:

I also added user datatel to system groups trying to increase privileges in case I the root user could not log in.

Code:

teamaix(root): /etc -> more group
system:!:0:root,hlp,ezadmin,udmsmgr,udms,datatel,uiusers,dmiadmin
staff:!:1:ipsec,sshd,datatel,staftp,stfftp,uiusers,dmiadmin
bin:!:2:root,bin,datatel,uiusers,dmiadmin
sys:!:3:root,bin,sys,datatel
adm:!:4:bin,adm,ezadmin,datatel
uucp:!:5:uucp,nuucp
mail:!:6:
security:!:7:root
cron:!:8:root
printq:!:9:lp
audit:!:10:root
ecs:!:28:
nobody:!:4294967294:nobody,lpd

Could there be some other reason that changing the home directory owner to bin caused such problems?