We have 2500+ users using linux thin clients with their home directory on a common NFS. We want Windows like file/folder sharing functionality between users.
The users are not linked to any particular machine, hence there is no IP-user mapping. So CIFS/SMB is not an option. (Given all the files reside on the same physical machine, it seems a overhead at the given scale)
I tried creating a symlink of the source user's shared directory inside the destination user's home dir (or a common directory). But, since the home directory has permission 700 in our setup, the shared directory (though it has relaxed permissions) is not accessible to the user. I don't know if this is the right approach.
Please suggest a good way of implementing this efficiently.
PS: All systems run linux/Ubuntu. The file manager is Thunar (can be changed, if needed)
PS2: I can write quite a bit of shell/python/perl script and if needed for the solution, edit the thunar app too.
EDIT:
As per the comment and the answer, I tried ACL. I set permissions using setfacl on NFS server and the new permissions reflect there, but the same in NOT reflected on the NFS client machines, when I check with getfacl.
NFS-Server# setfacl -Rm u:akila:rwX /nfshome/jp/shared
NFS-Server# getfacl /nfshome/jp/shared
# file: nfshome/jp/shared
# owner: jp
# group: users
user::rwx
user:akila:rwx
group::rwx
mask::rwx
other::r-x
------------
NFS-Client> getfacl /nfshome/jp/shared
# file: nfshome/jp/shared/
# owner: jp
# group: users
user::rwx
group::rwx
other::r-x