Re^2: Program requires special privilege e.g. as root or admin

in reply to Re: Program requires special privilege e.g. as root or admin
in thread Program requires special privilege e.g. as root or admin

influx,

Thanks for the information, below is the detail of

ls -la /var/spool 
drwxr-xr-x  9 root  root   4096 2012-05-16 09:36 .
drwxr-xr-x 13 root  root   4096 2012-05-16 10:57 ..
drwxr-xr-x  5 root  root   4096 2012-03-19 19:17 cron
drwxr-xr-x  4 cyrus mail   4096 2012-03-20 17:19 cyrus
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root  root      7 2012-03-19 19:06 mail -> ../mail
drwxr-S---  2 smmta smmsp 20480 2012-08-12 06:25 mqueue
drwxrws---  2 smmsp smmsp 12288 2012-08-12 06:25 mqueue-client
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root   4096 2011-09-28 11:08 plymouth
drwxr-xr-x 28 cyrus mail   4096 2012-03-20 17:19 sieve
drwxr-xr-x 3 root  root   4096 2012-05-08 16:51 squirrelmail
[download]

My script were trying to send emails to the users,I belive the squirrelmail is the Email application, I tried what is instructed in the link but still getting the same error

below is the configuration of the file after making the changes

total 60
drwxrwx---  9 root smmsp  4096 2012-05-16 09:36 .
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root   4096 2012-05-16 10:57 ..
drwxr-xr-x  5 root smmsp  4096 2012-03-19 19:17 cron
drwxr-xr-x  4 root smmsp  4096 2012-03-20 17:19 cyrus
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root smmsp     7 2012-03-19 19:06 mail -> ../mail
drwxr-S---  2 root smmsp 20480 2012-08-18 21:20 mqueue
drwxrws---  2 root smmsp 12288 2012-08-18 21:20 mqueue-client
drwxr-xr-x  2 root smmsp  4096 2011-09-28 11:08 plymouth
drwxr-xr-x 28 root smmsp  4096 2012-03-20 17:19 sieve
drwxrwx---  3 root smmsp  4096 2012-05-08 16:51 squirrelmail
[download]

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Re^3: Program requires special privilege e.g. as root or admin by roboticus (Chancellor) on Aug 19, 2012 at 02:18 UTC
romy_mathew: What are the permissions on /var/mail? If it's owned by root and doesn't give your account permission to the directory, you won't get to write to it, even if you have write access to the symlink. Example: `$ mkdir foo foo/bar foo/baz foo/bat $ cd foo $ chmod 000 bar $ ls -al total 44 drwxr-xr-x 5 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 . drwxr-xr-x 4 marco marco 28672 2012-08-18 22:07 .. d--------- 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 bar drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 bat drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 baz` [download] OK, now we have directories bar and bat, identical except that bar has no permissions for anyone. Let's go into baz and make symlinks to bar and bat: `$ cd baz $ ln -s ../bar bar $ ln -s ../bat bat $ ls -al total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:08 . drwxr-xr-x 5 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 marco marco 6 2012-08-18 22:08 bar -> ../bar lrwxrwxrwx 1 marco marco 6 2012-08-18 22:08 bat -> ../bat` [download] As you can see, the permissions on the bar symlink are the same as for the bat symlink. Let's create a file and copy it to bar and bat: $ touch t $ cp t bat $ cp t bar cp: cannot stat `bar/t': Permission denied $ ls bat t $ ls bar ls: cannot open directory bar: Permission denied [download] What happened? You have access to the symlink, but not to the underlying directory. In short, if you're going to write a file to the directory, you'll need write access to the underlying directory. ...roboticus When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re^3: Program requires special privilege e.g. as root or admin
by roboticus (Chancellor) on Aug 19, 2012 at 02:18 UTC

romy_mathew:

What are the permissions on /var/mail? If it's owned by root and doesn't give your account permission to the directory, you won't get to write to it, even if you have write access to the symlink. Example:

$ mkdir foo foo/bar foo/baz foo/bat
$ cd foo
$ chmod 000 bar
$ ls -al
total 44
drwxr-xr-x 5 marco marco  4096 2012-08-18 22:07 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 marco marco 28672 2012-08-18 22:07 ..
d--------- 2 marco marco  4096 2012-08-18 22:07 bar
drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco  4096 2012-08-18 22:07 bat
drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco  4096 2012-08-18 22:07 baz
[download]

OK, now we have directories bar and bat, identical except that bar has no permissions for anyone. Let's go into baz and make symlinks to bar and bat:

$ cd baz
$ ln -s ../bar bar
$ ln -s ../bat bat
$ ls -al
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:08 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 marco marco    6 2012-08-18 22:08 bar -> ../bar
lrwxrwxrwx 1 marco marco    6 2012-08-18 22:08 bat -> ../bat
[download]

As you can see, the permissions on the bar symlink are the same as for the bat symlink. Let's create a file and copy it to bar and bat:

$ touch t
$ cp t bat
$ cp t bar
cp: cannot stat `bar/t': Permission denied
$ ls bat
t
$ ls bar
ls: cannot open directory bar: Permission denied
[download]

What happened? You have access to the symlink, but not to the underlying directory. In short, if you're going to write a file to the directory, you'll need write access to the underlying directory.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

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