chown (was: at files and permissions)

[Chris Torek]

>In article <8072 at bsu-cs.bsu.edu> dhesi at bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
>>... BSD allows only root to change file ownership.

In article <4884 at ficc.uu.net> peter at ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>I certainly hope that V.4 doesn't have this *bogus* restriction.

The restriction is not bogus, because the system supports disk quotas.
If you could give away your own files, you could:

	mkdir .hide; chmod 700 .hide
	chdir .hide
	create_huge_file >foo
	chown prof1 foo
	create_huge_file >bar
	chown prof2 bar
	create_huge_file >baz
	chown prof3 baz

All you need do is find someone with a high quota or no quota (such
as a professor) who does not often check his own usage (such as a
professor) and probably does not care that the disk is 99% full (such
as a, er, well, never mind :-) ), and then give away files as necessary
to keep under your own quota.  You can regain ownership of the file by
copying it to another disk partition, removing the original, and copying
it back.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris