*BSD News Article 82680


Return to BSD News archive

Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.imperium.net!usenet
From: Mark Lehrer <edge@mud.imperium.net>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Why chown(2) is privileged?
Date: 11 Nov 1996 14:20:55 -0500
Organization: Imperium Internet
Lines: 8
Message-ID: <w7k9rsjv54.fsf@mud.imperium.net>
References: <CANDY.96Oct24222129@xxx.fct.kgc.co.jp>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mud.imperium.net
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34

candy@fct.kgc.co.jp (Toshihiro Kanda) writes:

>    Hello.  Chown(2) fails if non super-user try to change the owner
> uid of his/her files.  Why does BSD disallow non super-user to
> transfer ownership of files to the others?

Just about all Unixes do this - i'm not sure what the rationale
is, except that it is a non-reversible action...