9fans archive / 1996 / 08 / 45 /    prev next

From: forsyth@pla... forsyth@pla...
Subject: More questions..
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 15:36:59 BST

>>Is there a way to change owner from none to sys?

one of the advantages of using mkfs-a/mkext to install chunks of the CDROM
is that it can be told to set the original owner and group when the
target file system is in `allow' mode.

still, if files have ended up with the wrong group, you can change the
group with chgrp.  if you're not the right person to run that (eg,
not connected with the group), you'll need to `allow' first.
when running normally, no one can change a file's ownership;
that's why there isn't a chown command.  there is no super user in Plan 9.
`allow' mode permits change of ownership, however,
so it's possible to write a command that will work in that mode.
try ftp://ftp.cs.york.ac.uk/plan9/chown.c .

even so, you might be better off retrying the installation of the
bits you were trying to install by using the mkfs/mkext approach.
that way everything will be as it should be, including the file modes.
(but remember to do {chmod 777 /mail/tmp}, since the mode was
wrong on the CDROM.)