Error writing to home directory

[Guest_imported]

I'm having a problem where a routine I wrote to ftp a file (automatically, using a temporary .netrc file) is failing because a handfull of users on the system can't write to their home directories.

I've duplicated this by logging in as their unix id and simply trying to copy .profile to some other filename. It returns "cp: test: The file access permissions do not allow the specified action."

The basic smit settings appear to be fine. Any ideas?

 

[alexhu]

Check the permissions on the home directory - it should be owned by the user

Alex

 

[Guest_imported]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Looking at the permissions for this persons home directory (from that parent directory) shows:

drwxr-xr-x 2 303 staff 512 Oct 22 16:38 jimv

So that appears ok.

Interestingly enough, regarding that 3rd column, most list the userid there (same as last column). But a few list some other number (like 303 above). I'm not sure if this relates to the problem, but at least 2 others I'm having problems with also list a number there rather than the user id.

Stumped.

 

[bi]

When you get a number in the third column of a long listing, that means the user with UID of that number has been removed from the system. Check your /etc/passwd file and you will probably find that there is no user with a UID of 303.

do a chown of directory jimv like this: chown jimv:staff jimv.

(I'm assuming the login name of the owner of the directory is jimv.)

 

[Guest_imported]

Woo Hoo!

Thanks bi, that did it!

I'm grateful.

I checked all the home directories, and the only ones left with a number in the third column no longer have accounts.

It is curious how that happened to this one, as they have been here less than a year. Maybe 2 different people setup unix id's, and one id (I guess the 303) was later deleted while the actual home dir being used NOW was from the other one created (305). Crazy.

Thanks again.
David R

 

[bi]

Great!

If your users may be creating files in places other than their home directories, you might want to do a find to see if there are any other files with owners that are no longer on the system. The command is find / -user <uid> -print.