to all, using the sticky bit, as george indicated, is also a very usefull tool. the sticky bit has different meaning on files and executables... one problem you have to watch out for is the /tmp directory as it should NOT have the sticky bit 't' set... in some cases, the 't' sticky bit on a directory does not allow the creation of files, only the appending to an existing file. this is mainly used in NFS mounting (i.e. exporting) the /var/spool/mail directory from your mail server to other hosts used for login, compiling, and other computing needs where you don't want people creating files in the mail directory. some programs in my linux infomagic distribution and in solaris and dec ultrix, I'm assuming the remaining distributions as well, will set the /tmp directory with a 't' sticky bit... it should be removed... the hard way is to delete everything in /tmp, remove the dir, then make it: rm -rf /tmp mkdir /tmp the easy way is to: chmod o-t /tmp thanks to all who post and respond to issues in this list, it is this kind of knowledge transfer that we need! dc ---------- From: George Toft To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: Re: [SuSE Linux] Re: Sticky Bit Date: Monday, December 14, 1998 6:43PM Stefan Troeger wrote:

Hi,

On Mon, Dec 14, 1998 at 17:00 +0100, James (Jim) Hatridge wrote:

...

In Chmod, what do they mean by "Sticky Bit", ie 1000?

If you set it on a directory (e. g. /tmp), users can only delete their own files in it. Have a look at /tmp's permissions:

drwxrwxrwt 4 root root 1024 Dec 14 20:38 /tmp

without the sticky bit every user would have permission to remove someone elses files.

On files the sticky bit doesn't have an effect (at least in Linux).

Ciao, Stefan

My interpretation on the sticky bit was that (on older Unix system) it would keep the file in RAM to prevent continuously reloading it. I read about this, then applied it to a CGI script and noticed about a 30 0ncrease in response from the web server, after all, speed is everything on a 486. George - To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archiv at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>> - To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archiv at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>>