32

I'm setting up a new server and wanted to give ACL a shot over the chown:chgrp:chmod style permissions.

The man page for setfacl indicates that the '-R' option can be used to set the ACL recursively on files and directories.

-R, --recursive Apply operations to all files and directories recursively. This option cannot be mixed with ‘--restore’.

If my directory layout looks like this

test/
   subtest/
   subtest.txt

and I execute

setfacl -Rm d:u:foo:rwX test

The ACL takes effect on the 'subtest' directory, but not the subtest.txt file.

I think I can use find + exec to workaround it, but I plan to use this server to train a few other admin and I am wanting to keep it as simple as possible so we don't get hung up on some of the more advanced conventions.

Thanks

1 Answer 1

66

Try:

setfacl --recursive --modify u:foo:rwX,d:u:foo:rwX test

to modify the current ACL as well as the default. I believe "d:" only affects the (d)efault ACL of directories and leaves files untouched. Then, if you create a new file in the directory, it inherits the ACL of its parent directory via the default.

5
  • That makes sense even if it feels a bit redundant May 2, 2009 at 23:00
  • 1
    Does this work for removing access control as well. Perhaps something to the effect of: sudo setfacl -Rx g:gid path
    – user105964
    Jan 4, 2012 at 21:39
  • 1
    why does changing places between the -R and -m flags breaks the command?
    – pkaramol
    Mar 2, 2019 at 9:08
  • 1
    @pkaramol: Because the -m option takes an argument (the ACL spec u:foo:rwX,d:u:foo:rwX in this case) and switching the order of the options separates the option from its argument. It may also be that setfacl is coded to expect its main options first. Mar 2, 2019 at 13:33
  • 5
    More readable version of command: setfacl --recursive --modify user:foo:rwX,default:user:foo:rwX test. Today I learned the capital X is important for setting the eXecute permission for just folders and not every single file. Lower-case x sets the execute permission for folders and files.
    – browly
    Jul 16, 2020 at 16:59

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