Re: Object abilities

[Matthew Gessner <mgessner@mcs.kent.edu> writes:]

> I am new to VSTA and am having problems creating a directory so I can do wo
>rk in it. I can create the directory as root (sys.sys) but then how do I chan
>ge
> the permissions to indicate who the new owner is?

Well, assuming you're using the DOS filesystem--you can't. There's no room
in the directory entry to store VSTa permissions, so all files share a
common protection.

There was discussion of using a technique like the Rockridge extensions for
CDROMs. Nobody ever wrote it, however.

> I don't see anything like this in /vsta/bin and nothing in the source that
> I've checked so far seems to be able to do this.

Well, "stat -w" can do the job. I've also written an emulation of chmod(2),
and have a chmod(1) command too, but I'm not sure if those made the latest
release. It still begs the question of a filesystem which supports VSTa
permissions. tmpfs, vstafs, namer, and env all do.

The easiest way to deal with a DOS filesystem environment is to make up your
own ID, but be in a group which grants sys.sys. This'll let you create
files with your own unique idea, but will still permit you to read/write the
DOS filesystem. The "vandys" entry in /vsta/etc/passwd is set up this way,
FWIW.

                                                Regards,
                                                Andy Valencia
Received on Wed Nov 22 07:56:09 1995