13. Manage Permissions and Sharing

Question 1

1. How do you identify the ownership and permissions of a file or folder in the Finder?

Answer 1

1. You can use the Finder Info window to identify an item’s ownership and permissions.

Question 2

2. How do ACLs differ from standard UNIX file system permissions?

Answer 2

2. Access control lists (ACLs) expand the standard UNIX permissions architecture to allow more file and folder access control, similar to what’s available on Windows-based NTFS and UNIX file systems.

Question 3

3. Why is the root (or beginning) level of a user’s home folder visible to other users?

Answer 3

3. The root level of a user’s home folder is visible to other users so they can navigate to the Public shared folder.

Question 4

4. How does the default organization of the file system allow users to safely share local files and folders?

Answer 4

4. Every home folder contains a Public folder that other users can read and a Drop Box folder that other users can write to. All other subfolders in a user’s home folder (except the optional Sites folder) have default permissions that don’t allow access by other users. The Shared folder is also set for all users to share items.

Question 5

5. What’s unique about the permissions of the /Users/Shared folder?

Answer 5

5. The Shared folder is set up to allow all users to read and write files, but only the user who owns an item can delete it from the Shared folder. The “sticky bit” permissions setting prevents other users from deleting items that they don’t own.