UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I had a newbie question on giving permissions to directories and subdirectories.

I am one of the users in a group. The top level directory (say directory 'X' - owned by someone else) has the following permissions:

drwxrwxrwx

It also has a subdirectory, say 'Y', (which in turn has more subdirectories). The permissions for Y are:

drwxr-xr-x

When I am in this directory, I cannot create a new folder. Also, when I try to do a sftp to copy files into this directory (Y), it gives an error.

For subdirectory Y, I tried to change the permissions, but it returned an error ("Operation not permitted").

Is there any way that I can change the permissions of the subdirectory, or what should I do to enable me to copy folders into directory Y?

many thanks!!

First off, 777 is not the magic sledgehammer to fix all permissions problems. That drwxrwxrwx folder is a hazard and should be fixed.

You left out the most important information -- who the folder belongs to, who you are, what group the folder belongs to, and what groups you belong to. Knowing that, we could find a solution for you besides the magic sledgehammer.

Folder X:
drwxrwxrwx 4 Ben Labant 60 Jan 15 10:27 X

Folder Y (sub-directory of folder X above):
drwxr-xr-x 4 Bart Labant 60 Nov 18 13:20 Y

Ben is the administrator, and both Ben and Bart (and me) are in the group (How do I check for all the members in the group?)

thanks!!

chmod g+w "/path/to/Folder B" should allow your group to create and delete folders and files in there.

grep "groupname:" /etc/group to check who belongs to a group.

I tried

chmod g+w "/path/to/Folder/Y"

but it didn't work. Error given is "Operation not permitted"

You will have to ask your site admin then... for you must be root if you are not owner to changer perms ( mind you you can ask the owner also...)