Controlling file permissions

[gin]

Hello, I'm a PC user who has inherited admin duties over 4 macs (10.5.8 and 10.6), all of which have 6 users rotating between them as needed. I need to create a "Work" folder in each mac that all users can read and write to. Any file in this folder must be writable by any user.

I've heard this can be done by buying a Mac OS X Server, but no one (including the vendor) can tell me for sure if it really will solve my problem. Any advice much appreciated.

PS. I should mention that in trying to get the above set up without a server, I've already futzed with the umask and the Server Admin Tools, and there was something about POSIX and ACL. Still no joy, probably due to my complete lack of Mac skills.

 

[DeltaMac]

You already have a folder that is, by design, available to save or modify files by any user on each Mac.
It's the "Shared" folder in the Users folder.
You don't need to modify file permissions or ownership to use the Shared folder.

 

[gin]

Hi, thanks for the answer. I've received more information which is slight different from what I was initially told.

Instead of just one folder writable by everyone, each Mac has a work drive. In each drive, there are several folders. Each folder is accessible to different groups of users.

I was thinking an OSX server would be the equivalent of a Windows domain server in this case, and I would be able to use it to assign group-level security.