Re: chown - Operation not permitted

[Bob Proulx]

Kumar, Ashok wrote:
> Thanks a lot for quick reply. We are running on RedHat AS 3.2. 
>
> address@hidden root]# cat /proc/version
> Linux version 2.4.21-27.0.4.ELsmp (address@hidden)
> (gcc version 3.2.3 20030502 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-52)) #1 SMP Sat Apr 16
> 18:43:06 EDT 2005
> 
> Do we have any fix or workaround (preferably fix) for the same.

I think you missed the explanation that this is not broken behavior.
It is not a bug.  So there is nothing to fix.  It is working the way
it is supposed to work.  This is not distro specific.  POSIX requires
this behavior.  All of the current operating systems running a modern
kernel and claiming POSIX conformance behave this way.

   man posixoptions

   --- - POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED
       If this option is in effect (as it always is under POSIX 1003.1-2001)
       then  only  root may change the owner of a file, and non-root can only
       set the group of a file to one of the  groups  it  belongs to.   This
       affects the functions chown(), fchown().

Although it is possible to modify the linux kernel configuration and
compile it without this capability I recommend against it.  Instead I
suggest you look at the 'sudo' command.  This allows you to delegate
root access in less than global ways.

  man sudo

Bob