AACS2284 OPERATING SYSTEMS (PRACTICAL)

Practical 3: Managing Linux Permissions and Ownership

Q1. Fill in the following commands:

id Display information about a user’s UID and which groups she is

assigned to
groups Display information on the groups in which you are a member

/etc/passwd User and Group Configuration Files to store information for

each user such as the user name, the UID, the home directory,
and the standard shell
/etc/group User and Group Configuration Files to store group information
such as the group name, the GID, the members of the group
/etc/shadow User and Group Configuration Files to store encrypted user
password and password expiration information
useradd To create user account useradd option
<username>
usermod To modify settings for an existing user account usermod option
<username>
userdel To delete an existing user account userdel option
<username>
passwd To establish or change the password of a user account passwd
<username>
groupadd To add group account for the particular user

groupdel To delete group account

groupmod To modify the setting (GID, group name, users) for an existing
group

newgrp To change the effective group of the executing user

gpasswd To change password for group accounts

chmod To change file permission

umask To modify default access permission

chown To change the file ownership

chgrp To change the file ownership for group

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 AACS2284 OPERATING SYSTEMS (PRACTICAL)

Q2 Perform the following operations in UNIX command line interface:

a. Add a user called “newuser” in the system.

sudo adduser newuser

b. By using su command, switch to the newuser account.

su newuser

c. Create a file called “newuser_file” with the following mode “rw-------”.

touch newuser_file
chmod go-r newuser_file
chmod g-w newuser_file
Or
chmod 600 newuser_file

d. Logout newuser account and back to your current account.

exit

e. Create a directory called “currentuser_dir” under /home/administrator with the mode “rw-r--r--”.
mkdir currentuser_dir
chmod a-x currentuser_dir
or
chmod 644 currentuser_dir

f. Create a file called “currentuser_file” with default mode inside currentuser_dir. Can you create the
file in the directory? If not, make necessary modification on the directory’s mode. Enter “Hallo
World.”
cat > currentuser_dir/currentuser_file
Permission Denied
chmod a +x currentuser_dir
cat > currentuser_dir/currentuser_file (CTRL + D to terminate)

g. View currentuser_fileusing “cat” command. What message did you get?

cat currentuser_dir/currentuser_file
Halo World

h. In the current account, view newuser_file using “cat” command. What message did you get? Why?
cat/home/newuser/newuser_file
Permission Denied
Because the file does not give permission to other users to view its content

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 AACS2284 OPERATING SYSTEMS (PRACTICAL)

Q3 Change the following files, which currently have NO permission settings, to have the specified
permissions (use ls to check your result):

File Permissions Command

file1 rwxrwxrwx chmod a+rwx file OR
chmod 777 file1
File2 rwxr-xr-x chmod u+rwx,go=rx file2 OR
chmod 755 file2
file3 rw-r--r-- chmod u=rw,go=r file OR
chmod 644 file3
file4 rwx------ chmod u+rwx file4 OR
chmod 700 file4

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 AACS2284 OPERATING SYSTEMS (PRACTICAL)

Q4. Perform the following operations:

Action Command
A. Change to your home directory cd ~
B. Make a directory named “myfolder” mkdir myfolder
*** C. Allow group and others to be able to chmod go+rx .
read and execute on your home directory
(the access rights for home directory by
default is already readable and executable.
This question is just to show students the
purpose of dot (.))
*** D. Allow group and others to be able to chmod go+rx myfolder
read and execute on the myfolder directory
(the access rights for myfolder by default is
already readable and executable. This question
is just to test students in using chmod
command)
E. Verify the permissions on your home ls-l /home
directory and on myfolder (to view home directory access rights, we need to
view from home folder)
ls -l
(this for checking myfolder access right)
F. Use touch to create an empty file named touch myfolder/text1.txt
text1.txt and text2.txtinmyfolder directory touch myfolder/text2.txt
G. Allow group and others to be able to write chmod go+w myfolder
all files in the myfolder directory (this is to change myfolder access rights, optional
and can be ignored)
chmod go+w myfolder/*
(this is to check access rights of all files in
myfolder)
H. Verify the permissions on the file(s) in ls -l myfolder/*
myfolder directory

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 AACS2284 OPERATING SYSTEMS (PRACTICAL)

Extra exercises (Optional)

Q5.

1. To combine /etc/passwd with /etc/group and send the output into the file users_groups.txt
Answer: cat/etc/passwd /etc/group > user_groups.txt

2. To create a symbolic link of doc1 file to softlink in your home directory

Answer: ln -s doc1 softlink

3. Display the content of /var/log/messages page-by-page.

Answer: less / var/log/messages

4. Move and rename the /tmp/file2 file to ~/my_file2 by using a single command.
Answer: mv/tmp/file2 ~/my_file2

5. Using wildcards token, list all the files with filenames consists of exactly 4 letters and which start
with the letter “M”.
Answer: ls -M???

6. Find all files in the /home directory that have the word “AACS2284” as part of their filename.
Answer: find /home -name “AACS2284”

7. List all the directory names that exist under the /var directory
Answer: ls -d/var/*

8. The vi editor can function in 2 modes, namely :____input_______ and ___command___

9. Write a command to show the date and time using each of the following formats:
hh: 11mm: 24
Answer: date + “hh: %H mm: %M”

10. For the umask 272, what will the permissions on all new files and new directories be? Express
your answers in octal format.
Anwser: New files ____404____ and new directories____505____

*By default, files don’t have execute so need to minus 1 again

11. Lock the account of a user with the username john.

Answer: passwd -l john

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 AACS2284 OPERATING SYSTEMS (PRACTICAL)

Q6. The questions below are interrelated and therefore must be done in sequence.

1. Create a non-empty file called Myfile file under your cat > Myfile
default user directory. sudo useradd -m John
Create a new user called John

2. Switch user to the root user account. sudo -i

Change the ownership of Myfile file to John. chown John /home/taruc/Myfile

3. Logout root user account. exit

4. Using a single command, switch to “John” account and his su -l John

home directory. mkdir -p dir A/letters dirB/reports
Create two directories and subdirectories called
dirA/letters and dirB/reports under John directory by
using a single command.

5. Deny all access to the “letters” directory by everyone chmod 700 dirA/letters
except the owner.

6. Change directory to dirB/reports using absolute pathname. cd/home/John/dirB/reports

Create an empty file named OSdoc under dirB/reports. touch OSdoc
Set the permission for the file OSdoc to allow read and write chmod 660 OSdoc
by the file’s owner and members of the file’s owner group
only.

7. Logout John account and switch to your own account. exit

8. Change directory to John’s dirA/letters using relative cd ../John/dirA/letters

pathname. No write and execute permission to
Can this be done? If not, why not? the directory

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