Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Weird to analyze rdiff-backup problem.

[dean gaudet]

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005, Steve Clement wrote:

> it is because of the sticky-bit, something isn't right there.

actually it's not the sticky-bit -- sticky-bit would be a final "t" in the 
last column of the perms.  the "s" is setgid... i'm not 100% certain of 
the setgid directory semantics on freebsd but elsewhere it causes group 
inheritance for new files.

here is one guess... rdiff-backup does a chown before a chmod, which is 
the necessary ordering to set set[ug]id bits on files (because chown drops 
set[ug]id bits for security reasons)... but some operating systems permit 
regular users to "give away" files/directories -- you can chown or chgrp 
them to other users or groups.  in that case you'd get EPERM from the 
chmod.

i don't know if freebsd is in that class of OS or not...

your remote side is not root, so it's possibly running into troubles of 
this nature.

another possibility is that a non-root can't setgid a directory, which i 
would find odd...

can you "find -ls" the contents of the remote directory so we can see what 
perms it set up before trying the chmod?

regardless i think rdiff-backup should let chmod fail for non-root users.  
i can take care of fixing that.

-dean