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

[Dylan Thurston]

On Wed, Nov 17, 2004 at 09:45:00PM -0500, Stephen R Laniel wrote:
> Related to the why-can-users-delete-files-they-don't-own
> question, here's one I've had for a while but have -- I
> believe -- never posed to this group of people: why are the
> Unix permissions so limited? E.g., why can't one set
> permissions to allow or deny
> 
> * deleting a file
> * changing the permissions on a file
> * modifying a file
> * creating a file
> * etc.
> 
> ? I gather that AFS and other such beefy filesystems do
> allow this, but I'm surprised that everyday Unix does not.
> As I recall, WinNT has a rather extensive set of permissions
> that one can set on every file.
> 
> Any idea?

Several answers:

(a) It's historical, dating back to the 70's or earlier.

(b) There are file systems for Linux that will do that.  You can make
your kernel capability-based if you want, which gives much more power
than that.

(c) Tracking a lot of different permissions is likely to be
error-prone.

Peace,
	Dylan
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