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10.5: Share any files between users on the same Mac
Authored by: Frederico on Jun 15, '09 12:07:39AM

This is probably a cool and useful hint for a single-drive, single-volume Mac, but I've rarely owned one of those where EVERYONE had to use the same files, the exception being the iTunes Library, and even then I *always* use partitioning to create at least a Users volume, and usually a Media volume, as well.

On any tower I always have a Users drive and a Media (or simply 'Shared Files') drive, too; both of these strategies have saved my butt dozens of times when the System volume becomes un-bootable *and* unmountable for various reasons. It's also super-helpful for backup strategies of data that doesn't change often enough to warrant daily/weekly or even monthly backups.

The point of this is that the Media/Shared Files drive/volume is simply set to 'Ignore Ownership on This Volume', and the /Users/Shared/ folder's various Music/Movies/Icons/Pictures/Wallpapers/Installers/etc. is/are Symlinked to live on the Media volume, thus having zero permissions issues.

Accomplishes everything in your hint, with little fuss, and, unlike the other commenters suggesting Shared folders as alternative, your local all-access volumes can be hidden from network sharing altogether, should security of the shared folder be desired to be restricted to local access only.

Still, ACLs are totally cool, and I appreciate this hint for it's potential other uses.

Cheers

Rico



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10.5: Share any files between users on the same Mac
Authored by: paulw on Jun 16, '09 07:58:19AM

For those who don't have an already partitioned drive, could a similar thing be accomplished by keeping the iTunes library on a sparse disk image, again with "ignore ownership on this volume" checked?



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10.5: Share any files between users on the same Mac
Authored by: Frederico on Jun 19, '09 03:12:15AM

A quick test with a handful of songs says yes. Very cool idea, BTW. Could be very, very useful; e.g., to share adult content (explicit songs, NC-17 movies, etc.) from the same computer by simply password-protecting the disk image.

Possible drawbacks would include slower access time and possible frame-rate drops for HD content unless the DMG is located on a very fast drive or a raid.

This might qualify as a hint unto itself, don't you think, Rob G.?



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