[SOLVED] Ownership of files in ~/

Roken · 2016-10-20 19:51:19

Is there any reason for files in ~/ to be owned by anyone except the user? After recently managing to fix a dbus/session problem (which effectively meant recreating a bunch of stuff in ~/.config) and moving stuff backwards and forwards to isolate the problem, there's a mass of stuff in ~/.local/shape/applications (and I dare say other stuff) owned by root. Is it safe to chown them all back to my user, or is this normal and I just never noticed?

Last edited by Roken (2016-10-22 09:39:05)

scar · 2016-10-20 20:00:49

No, normally files like .local/share/apps/APPNAME should be owned by the user.

frostschutz · 2016-10-20 20:06:02

stuff owned by root in your home usually happens when you mess things up by being root... for example starting firefox as root (while homedir is set to your users home) and such things.

that or you copied files without preserving permissions and timestamps (never just cp, always cp -a)

Last edited by frostschutz (2016-10-20 20:06:52)

WorMzy · 2016-10-20 20:24:31

Mod note: not an application/DE issue, moving to NC.

Daerandin · 2016-10-20 20:34:48

This is likely caused by running graphical applications with sudo. If you need to run graphical applications as root, you should always do so with gksudo, never with sudo.

Roken · 2016-10-20 22:00:39

I never run graphical applications with sudo, but my attempt to fix has just almost killed my system. $USER has taken ownership of most files on the system. Now setting them all to root, except ~/ files, and I'll fix up individual files across the filesystem as I go. It just goes from bad to worse lately, and the only error sits between the chair and the keyboard

EDIT: For clarity, beware of *

Last edited by Roken (2016-10-20 22:01:45)

Starfish · 2016-10-21 13:07:42

Have you tried 'lsof' to check what applications are currently accessing the files?

Roken · 2016-10-22 09:38:46

Unfortunately it went from bad to worse. After updating I ended up with a non booting system (Failed to execute /init). Passing init at grub didn't help, and I was starting to think of backing up /etc, creating a list of installed packages and starting from a clean install. However, as a last ditch try I chrooted in and reinstalled all packages. This had the added bonus of fixing most permissions and owners. Rebooted and I'm back.

I still had a couple of permission issues (SUID on beep and ownership problems with chrome and virtualbox) which I've fixed. I dare say I'll come across more in the fullness of time, but I can fix the odd file. At least I don't have to fix the whole system again.

I'm going to mark as solved.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-10-20 19:51:19

[SOLVED] Ownership of files in ~/

#2 2016-10-20 20:00:49

Re: [SOLVED] Ownership of files in ~/

#3 2016-10-20 20:06:02

Re: [SOLVED] Ownership of files in ~/

#4 2016-10-20 20:24:31

Re: [SOLVED] Ownership of files in ~/

#5 2016-10-20 20:34:48

Re: [SOLVED] Ownership of files in ~/

#6 2016-10-20 22:00:39

Re: [SOLVED] Ownership of files in ~/

#7 2016-10-21 13:07:42

Re: [SOLVED] Ownership of files in ~/

#8 2016-10-22 09:38:46

Re: [SOLVED] Ownership of files in ~/

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