[Linux-disciples] Deleting files you don't own

[Dylan Thurston]

On Wed, Nov 17, 2004 at 07:37:27AM -0500, Stephen R Laniel wrote:
> I was trying just now to figure out why it is that people
> who don't own a file or even have any permissions on it are
> allowed to delete it. So I created a file, set the
> owner to root:root, set the permissions to 600, then tried
> to delete it. I was asked whether I really wanted to delete
> a write-protected file, and responded that I did want to;
> the file was deleted.
> 
> Why are users allowed to do this? Where's the logic (I
> assume this happens by design)? And if it's something that
> should be overridable, how does one override it?

You can delete a file iff you have write permission on the directory
containing it.  (Unless the sticky bit on the directory is set, I
think.)  It's the directory that needs to be modified, not the file.

Peace,
	Dylan
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