I have a complicated file hierarchy and I don't want to check the permissions on each directory. Is there any way to find out immediately if one file is readable by a given user? (outside of logging in as that user)
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This will only work if you have root privileges
if the user has a valid login shell
su username -c 'ls /long/dir/user/filename'
if the user has a nologin shell /sbin/nologin and similar:
su username -s /bin/sh -c 'ls /long/dir/user/filename'
To find out why a user cannot access a file (builds readable output tree with permissions):
# namei -om /home/someuserhomedir/Maildir/ f: /home/someuserhomedir/Maildir/ dr-xr-xr-x root root / drwxr-xr-x root root home drwx------ someuser somegroup someuserhomedir drwx------ someuser somegroup Maildir
Martino Dino
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That says Permission denied on everything, even '/'. – Oin Jan 31 '13 at 13:23
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right, I was gonna suggest the ticks, it works now. Thanks! – Oin Jan 31 '13 at 13:27
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2If you want to figure out why you can't access a file use `namei`: `sudo -u user namei -m /long/dir/user/filename` – fuero Jan 31 '13 at 14:03
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@fuero That's a good one, didn't know namei, thanks! – Martino Dino Jan 31 '13 at 22:07