Why we need ACLs ?
Every file on any UNIX file system will have an owner/group and set of permissions. Imagine a case when multiple users need access to the same file and the users are from different groups. The file access control lists (FACLs) or simply ACLs are the list of additional users/groups and their permission to the file.
How to know when a file has ACL attached to it
It is very easy to know when a file has a attached ACL to it. ls -l command would produce a output as show below.
# ls -l -rw-r--r-+ 1 root root 0 Sep 19 14:41 file
Note the + sign at the end of the permissions. This confirms that the file has an ACL attached to it.
Viewing ACLs
To display details ACL information of a file use the getfacl command.
# getfacl /tmp/test # file: test # owner: root # group: root user::rw- user:john:rw- user:sam:rwx group::r-- mask::rwx other:---
Notice the 3 different user: lines. The first line lists the standard file permissions of the owner of the file. The 2 other user permissions are the individual permission for the user john and sam. The mask field here only applies to the additional permissions we have given to the user and groups. If the mask is set to rwx the read, write and execute permissions will be granted to additional user/groups. If the mask is set to r-x, the write permission will not be granted to additional user/groups.In general, DO NOT set mask to anything other than rwx. The mask value doe not affect the standard UNIX user/group/others permissions.
File with no ACLs
If you run the getfacl command on a file with no ACLs the additional “user:” lines and “mask” line will not be shown and standard file permissions will be shown.
# getfacl test # file: test # owner: root # group: root user::rw- group::r-- other::r--
Creating and Managing FACLs
The setfacl command is used to set ACL on the given file. To give a rw access to user john on the file /tmp/test :
# setfacl -m u:john:rw /tmp/test
The -m option tells setfacl to modify ACLs on the file(s) mentioned in command line. Instead of user john we can have a group to have a specific permission on the file :
# setfacl -m g:accounts:rw /tmp/test
FACLs for multiple user and groups can also be set with single command :
# setfacl -m u:john:rw,g:accounts:rwx /tmp/test
Default FACLs on directories
Default ACLs are only created on directories. When you set default ACLs on directories, any files created within that directory will also have that default FACL assigned automatically.
To create a default FACL on a directory :
# setfacl -m default:u:john:rw /accounts
# getfacl accounts/ # file: accounts/ # owner: root # group: root user::rwx group::r-x other::r-x default:user::rwx default:user:john:rw- default:group::r-x default:mask::rwx default:other::r-x
Now create a new file in the accounts directory and list the FACL on the file :
# touch /accounts/test # getfacl test # file: test # owner: root # group: root user::rw- user:john:rw- group::r-x #effective:r-- mask::rw- other::r--
Removing FACLs
To remove FACL, use the setfacl command with -x option :
# setfacl -x u:john /tmp/test
The above command removes the ACL for the user john on the file /tmp/test. The ACLs for other user/groups if any remains unaffected.
To remove all ACLs associated to a file use the -b option with setfacl :
# setfacl -b /tmp/test
Backing up the FACLs
Many a times, the backup software may not copy the metadata related to the FACL on the files. In that case you may want to backup the FACL information on the files. Now, the FACL on all the files in a directory (including all sub directories) can be copied in a single file.
# cd /accounts # getfacl -R * > accounts_facl ( -R -> recursive )
Restoring the FACLs
When you restore the files in /accounts directory, you would have to restore the FACLs associated with the files in that direcotry. TO do that use the FACL backup file accounts_facl along with the –restore option :
# setfacl --restore=accounts_facl