CentOS - Aug 2007 - Chmod Explaination

Howdy list,

 I can't seem to find any doc's explaining what's really going on
behind
this scenario:

A user home directory had been reset to :

d--- --- --- user group user_dir


As root i tried to :

chmod -R 750 user_dir

got permission denied, my friend tried with as user that owns the directory
to:

chmod -R 750 user_dir  and voila it works.

My question is how come did it work, since the user_dir doesn't have a owner
permission attached and why user root has been denied with changing the
mode?


Rgds,

Joseph
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: centos-bounces at centos.org 
> [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of joseph blase
> Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 5:33 PM
> To: CentOS mailing list
> Subject: [CentOS] Chmod Explaination
> 
> Howdy list,
> 
>  I can't seem to find any doc's explaining what's really 
> going on behind this scenario:
> 
> A user home directory had been reset to :
> 
> d--- --- --- user group user_dir
> 
> 
> As root i tried to : 
> 
> chmod -R 750 user_dir 
> 
> got permission denied, my friend tried with as user that owns 
> the directory to:
> 
> chmod -R 750 user_dir  and voila it works.
> 
> My question is how come did it work, since the user_dir 
> doesn't have a owner permission attached and why user root 
> has been denied with changing the mode? 
Owners always have rights to change permission on a file/folder.

As far as root not being able to, do you have selinux running?

-Ross

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