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Full Discussion: What's the best way to check file permissions before moving files if needed?
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting What's the best way to check file permissions before moving files if needed? Post 303036856 by Cacializ on Sunday 14th of July 2019 03:13:35 PM
Old 07-14-2019
What's the best way to check file permissions before moving files if needed?
Hello,
I would like to know if it's a good practice to check the file permissions of the contents of a directory before moving them. For example:
Code:
mv -- "$directory"/* "$directory"/.[!.]* "$directory"/..?* "$destination"

The variables $directory and $destination contain the path to an existing directory. The problem is that I don't have control of the user's directory who runs the script so, in theory, the files may not have the needed permissions to be moved, and the directory is required to be empty. What's a good way to check if every file was moved successfully?

The first thing that came to mind is to check the exit status of the command:
Code:
mv -- "$directory"/* "$directory"/.[!.]* "$directory"/..?* "$destination" || exit 1

However, this doesn't mean a file couldn't be moved, because it can also exit because of a non-existing directory entry as a result of the glob. I also thought of checking if the directory is actually empty:
Code:
for entry in "$directory"/* "$directory"/.[!.]* "$directory"/..?*
do
    if [ -e "$entry" ] || [ -L "$entry" ]
    then
        printf "A file couldn't be moved.\n" 1>&2
        exit 1
    fi
done

But I'd like to know if this check is unnecessary. I also thought about checking if every single file has the needed permissions before using the mv command, but I'm afraid that would be superfluous.
Thanks in advance.
Last edited by Cacializ; 07-14-2019 at 04:32 PM..
 

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LEARN ABOUT SUNOS

check-permissions

check-permissions(1M)					  System Administration Commands				     check-permissions(1M)

NAME

       check-permissions - check permissions on mail rerouting files

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/sbin/check-permissions [login]

DESCRIPTION

       The   check-permissions script is intended as a migration aid for sendmail(1M). It checks the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file for all configured
       alias files, and checks the alias files for :include: files. It also checks for certain .forward files. For each file  that   check-permis-
       sions checks, it verifies that none of the parent directories are group- or world-writable. If any directories are overly permissive, it is
       reported. Otherwise it reports that no unsafe directories were found.

       As to which .forward files are checked, it depends on the arguments included on the command line. If no	argument  is  given,  the  current
       user's home directory is checked for the presence of a  .forward file. If any arguments are given, they are assumed to be valid logins, and
       the home directory of each one is checked.

       If the special argument ALL is given,  the passwd entry in the  /etc/nsswitch.conf file is checked, and all password entries  that  can	be
       obtained through the switch file are checked. In large domains, this can be time-consuming.

OPERANDS

       The following operands are supported:

       login	       Where login is a valid user name, checks the home directory for	login.

       ALL	       Checks the home directory of  all users.

FILES

       /etc/mail/sendmail.cf   Defines enviornment for	sendmail

       /etc/mail/aliases       Ascii mail aliases file

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWsndmu 		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Evolving			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       getent(1M), sendmail(1M), aliases(4), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.10							    10 Nov 2003 					     check-permissions(1M)
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