Because chown is only allowed to be run by root? Contrast with systems like hpux where there's a "system privilege" that allows everyone to chown files. Normally the ability to chown files would be a security risk - otherwise what's to stop you from setting the suid bit on a file, then chowning it to root and running it, thereby elevating your permissions? Actually, on hpux, chown will strip sticky bits when you give a file away, preventing such an exploit.
I may be entirely wrong (and happily corrected) though, since I would've sworn it actually said chown was only for root in the manual page, but the manual page I have for it now doesn't say that. > -----Original Message----- > From: Maria Comploier [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 2:46 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: chown: changing ownership of `/tmp/tst': Operation not > permitted > > > Why would chown only runs successfully if run as the root userid? > > > > -- > redhat-list mailing list > unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list > -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
