Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

orschiro · 2013-06-04 05:15:18

Hello there,

Can I safely ignore the changed permissions of the new gdm upgrade?

(21/57) upgrading gdm                                                                                      [################################################################] 100%
warning: directory permissions differ on /var/log/gdm/
filesystem: 711  package: 1770

Regards

WonderWoofy · 2013-06-04 05:18:55

There is typically a reason why defaults are defualts. But if you know why this has been changed, you can probably safely ignore it. For example, I used to use pdnsd, and it is recommended tha you use an alternate custom user to run the service. So the permissions in that case are totally different. With pacman 4.1, it now will not change the permissions set on the files if they differ from what is in the package. This is a good thing, but it also requires that you know a bit more about what is going on in your system.

orschiro · 2013-06-04 05:26:19

But if you know why this has been changed, you can probably safely ignore it.

Well, that is the point why I am asking here. I do not know why this has been changed and now I am curious if something is just wrong on my system and if I should adjust the permissions to reflect the permissions proposed by the new package update.

WonderWoofy · 2013-06-04 06:05:42

I am assuming that either way, root owns the directory and has full access to it. You could have compared the two to see this. So at least in terms of writability, it should be fine. But if the owner of the directory is not root, or the same between the two, you may want to make them the same. I don't use GDM, so without more info about what is actually in place there, I can't comment further than that.

orschiro · 2013-06-04 19:30:01

[orschiro@thinkpad ~]# ls -la /var/log/gdm/
total 268
drwx--x--x 2 root gdm   4096  4. Jun 21:09 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root  4096  4. Jun 21:09 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root gdm   2955 20. Apr 18:55 :0-greeter.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root gdm   2747 20. Apr 16:59 :0-greeter.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root gdm   3137 20. Apr 06:51 :0-greeter.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root gdm   3111 19. Apr 05:58 :0-greeter.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root gdm   2955 18. Apr 23:01 :0-greeter.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25530  4. Jun 21:12 :0.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 26196  4. Jun 07:48 :0.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44206  2. Jun 14:12 :0.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34377  1. Jun 21:07 :0.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40430 31. Mai 22:21 :0.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   738 22. Apr 06:41 :0-slave.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   741 20. Apr 17:11 :0-slave.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   741 20. Apr 09:18 :0-slave.log.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   695 19. Apr 08:35 :0-slave.log.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   656 18. Apr 23:32 :0-slave.log.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 35030  6. Mai 07:40 :1.log

WonderWoofy · 2013-06-04 21:02:07

Okay... so what is the ownership of that directory in the gdm package? It is not telling you of differing permissions within the directory, but rather the directory itself. But in any case, the '.' is representative of the directory, so that works to indicate what the permission are.

Basically if the package wants to give the gdm group rwx permissions on the directory, and your filesystem does not give it those permissions, you should change it to ensure that the service has proper logging capabilities. This is really just basic common sense permissions... compare the two and make an educated decision.

Like I said before I have no idea why your filesystem might differ from what is in the package, since I don't use (and have never used) gdm. So I cannot comment on that. You have to determine for yourself why this might be, as I cannot tell you about what happens with your system. Maybe look in your package cache and see if the permissions differed in the past. It is an advancement in pacmans awesomeness that it does not just write over your current permissions, as if you change them for whatever reason you would have to cahnge them back every update otherwise.

hoschi · 2013-06-04 21:02:53

This warning is printed on every system with gdm. This reduces permissions for world and increases permissions for gdm, and adds also the sticky bit. I assume gdm should't be able to delete files created by root. So I applied it.

I wonder about the change itself. But the permissions get reset, after reboot. I will fill a bug...

Last edited by hoschi (2013-06-04 21:04:53)

hoschi · 2013-06-04 21:14:46

Bug seems to be caused caused by gdm itself, it changes permissions at runtime.

Upstream:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=698328
Downstream:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/index.php?do … k_id=34826

orschiro · 2013-06-05 08:49:58

Thanks hoschi. So I will leave permissions as they are and will not change anything until the bug is fixed.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-06-04 05:15:18

Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

#2 2013-06-04 05:18:55

Re: Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

#3 2013-06-04 05:26:19

Re: Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

#4 2013-06-04 06:05:42

Re: Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

#5 2013-06-04 19:30:01

Re: Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

#6 2013-06-04 21:02:07

Re: Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

#7 2013-06-04 21:02:53

Re: Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

#8 2013-06-04 21:14:46

Re: Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

#9 2013-06-05 08:49:58

Re: Upgrading gdm: Changed permissions

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