Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!


Click here to return to the 'Locking files and folders to prevent changes' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Locking files and folders to prevent changes
Authored by: macmedix on Jan 30, '06 10:57:25PM
Great Hint! I really like this:
chflags -R uappnd *
It's a great way to protect files & folders that are not supposed to change, but do need to be opened, looked at, and copied (but NOT deleted, moved, edited, nor accidentally overwritten!). The * gets all files & folders at this level, plus the -R gets all folders & files recursively. Even the mighty Root can't change files after this command has been applied, and that goes for admins doing sudo as well. Nicely protected. Use ls -lo to see the flags. If you want to change the files, use
chflags -R nouappnd * to turn it off again. Nifty.

Ok, so my goal is to protect the files that are on a server:
ssh root@servername
cd /volumes/hdName/TopFolder2Protect/
then
chflags -R uappnd *


I planned to use this command to protect files on a ReadyNAS which I believe is using some Linux variation, but serves up AFP over TCP. I would apply the command either SSH-ed into the ReadyNAS, or mount the NAS as a AFP volume, then apply the command as if it were a local volume.

Problem:
this seems to work differently on a network volume, even if I ssh into that server. When on a network volume (in this case OSX (non-server) 10.3.4) The files are protected against name edits, file edits, etc, but in some cases they are not openable, either. I'm using a bunch of GIFs & PNGs in folders as a test, and They can double-click open into Preview, but Graphic Converter can't open them as they are locked. ("System Error software lock on file, not a subscriber") Adobe Illustrator X says it can't open the GIF files because "the server has denied access to the file". That's sort of disappointing, as I expected it would work the same on the servers as it does on my Mac. I want the files to not only be protected, but also easily opened in place.

How could this be improved to work better?

Thanks!
Dave N


[ Reply to This | # ]