What does Repair Disk Permissions do?
- Thread starter twister
- Start date
Every file on a Unix system has "permissions" associated with it. You can see these permissions if you open the Terminal and type "ls -l" (ell-ess-space-dash-ell). At the beginning of each line you'll see something like these letters and dashes:
-rw-r--r--
drwxr-xr-x
These are the "permissions" for each item in the directory listing. The very first letter is either a dash or a "d" indicating a file or a directory. The next set of three letters indicates Read/Write/Execute permissions for the "owner" of the file or directory. The next three positions indicate the same set of permissions for the "group" of the item. The last three letters indicate the permissions for "everybody."
There are a lot of other nuances to permissions, but suffice it to say that they determine who can and can't do things with files and folders.
When you run Repair Disk Permissions the Disk Utility examines the system files and folders and makes sure that the permissions and ownership are set correctly. This is important, because if these permissions are set incorrectly it can prevent the system and applications from accessing the resources they need.
To learn more about ownership and permissions check out this page and the rest of the documentation at the site:
http://www.geek-girl.com/Unixhelp/tasks/under_perm2.html
-rw-r--r--
drwxr-xr-x
These are the "permissions" for each item in the directory listing. The very first letter is either a dash or a "d" indicating a file or a directory. The next set of three letters indicates Read/Write/Execute permissions for the "owner" of the file or directory. The next three positions indicate the same set of permissions for the "group" of the item. The last three letters indicate the permissions for "everybody."
There are a lot of other nuances to permissions, but suffice it to say that they determine who can and can't do things with files and folders.
When you run Repair Disk Permissions the Disk Utility examines the system files and folders and makes sure that the permissions and ownership are set correctly. This is important, because if these permissions are set incorrectly it can prevent the system and applications from accessing the resources they need.
To learn more about ownership and permissions check out this page and the rest of the documentation at the site:
http://www.geek-girl.com/Unixhelp/tasks/under_perm2.html
twister
Howdy
Thanks. I ran it at work today for the first time ever and i think it changed all the files on my computer. Ok maybe not that many but still a freaking lot.
Also. My friend can't run Repair Disk Permissions Any idea why someone couldn't do that? We clicked on his HD and the buttons are greyed out. Weird......
Twister
Also. My friend can't run Repair Disk Permissions Any idea why someone couldn't do that? We clicked on his HD and the buttons are greyed out. Weird......
Twister
Repair permissions will also only repair permissions on a system disk and cannot be done while booted from that system. The best way to repair permissions is to boot from the OS X Installer CD and run it from there. I have also heard that running the repair permissions after a fresh install of X will make the system run a little snappier.
gatorparrots
~departed~
That's not actually true. It is very possible (and normal) to repair permissions on the system disk while booted from that system. What is not possible is to verify or repair a disk while booted off of the system it contains. That requires booting from another drive or CD. Perhaps you confused the two functions.
