Unique question, Pidgin (aka gaim) has some configuration files. I would like to have these configuration files remain untouched/unmodified, but readable. I am running pidgin under a normal user account. Here is what I tried:
chmod 004 file.xml sudo chown root:root file.xml Launch pidgin as user -> In theory, pidgin would be able to read the file.xml, but unable to modify it. After pidgin launches, file.xml permissions become 600 owned by user:user and can be modified. I don't understand this, as since the file is owned by root, and the user has no permissions to modify the file, how can a program running under that user's account modify and change the file permissions? Shouldn't the file permissions prevent the modification of this file? Thanks.
